I don’t want to single out the entire service industry, including intermediaries and Customs brokers. Many work diligently for their clients and are committed to maintaining compliance. You have our full support, as we recognise the tireless effort it takes to uphold these standards—often at the risk of losing business because you're not willing to compromise on compliance!

While it's difficult to quantify the negative impact fully without more concrete evidence, the frustration is undeniable.

Unfortunately, UK businesses seem to have few options other than ‘voting with their feet’ and switching to a different service provider. Personally, I believe the growing influence of intermediaries in deciding what they will and won’t do for UK traders is a step too far, and there is a need for official intervention. With a Customs Intermediaries Voluntary Standard not going far enough.

However, with recent changes in procedures, we are seeing the policies of some intermediaries having a negative impact on UK businesses, and this is becoming increasingly clear. We encounter these challenges daily in our shipping office operations and through feedback from our business support clients.

Do any of these scenarios sound familiar to you?

• The intermediary doing your Customs declaration doesn’t follow your instructions, so the entry is incorrect, and you need to seek an amendment if the error permits
• Import preference not claimed, though you have instructed them to do so, and the supplier paperwork has the correct statements. Resulting in you having to complete a C285 to recover import duty. Doubling the work both you and HMRC must do.
• Agent applying preference to anything at import if the value is below £1000, even though this is specific to the UK-EU TCA and only if goods originate in the EU
• The agent refusing to put goods to a Special Procedure, such as Inward or Outward Processing – saying you can make an amendment later or just they won’t do it.
• Not using Postponed VAT Accounting (PVA), though asked to do so, which means an outlay of funds is required to cover import VAT, hitting cashflow and potentially delaying delivery of goods because the agent wants the money upfront.
• Not declaring an export licence on the declaration though the paperwork clearly shows it should be declared. Despite what the agent may say, this cannot be amended after the fact but is a non-compliance.
• Seeing imports or exports on your CDS Data reports (MSS reports) that have been declared incorrectly against your GB EORI
• Not having a reference on CDS/MSS reports to tie up with the actual parcel
• Being asked to pay, perhaps £25.00 per entry document, to the agent when requesting a copy of Customs entry

All these issues make reconciling and evidence-keeping very difficult for some businesses and frustrating at best. Though we don’t claim to speak from HMRC, we can see that in most of the above cases, the fact you have chosen to use that agent will be seen as a commercial decision, and so you have to live with the extra fees and additional time spent putting things right (when you can). If your agent isn’t following your instructions, there are plenty more intermediaries in the sea for you to go to. But that isn’t helpful, especially as we see more and more cases of agents deciding how to declare goods to Customs.

So, how easy would it be for you to change agents?

Commercial decisions on who you use as an import or export broker may be out of your hands, even out of your company’s hands, as the agent is nominated and paid by your suppliers or customers. However, the fact remains that compliance is the responsibility of the importing or exporting organisation identified by the GB EORI on the entry. At best, the agent will be acting as an indirect representative and have shared liability.

If the intermediary company has decided they won’t make declarations to enter goods into Special Procedures – because they are more time-consuming to complete, the procedures aren’t supported by their IT system or can’t be bothered – then the only way to object is to move to a company that will treat your business requirements seriously. With preference, it is slightly different; a corporate decision to not claim preference, if instructed to do so by the importer, or just claiming preference without supporting evidence must always be the agent’s responsibility.

Also, if an agent uses your GB EORI for a shipment that belongs to another company, this is an offence. But the onus is on you, the company named, to notify HMRC via the National Clearance Hub that this has happened. Also, try to find out who should have correctly been declared on the entry so you can cancel the incorrect declaration. Or ask the agent who made the incorrect entry to cancel it. There may be spin-offs into the land of import VAT as well, so ensure your finance team is aware that you should not reclaim/offset import VAT unless you own the goods that have been imported.

Since the UK’s departure from the EU, it feels as though the balance of power has shifted away from UK importers and exporters. The question we now face is: how can we address and resolve this issue?