The original guidance from the Cabinet Office advised against exporting tangible goods and strongly recommended that those who wished to donate to donate to recognised charities, and for those donations to be financial.

The official recommendation has not prevented businesses and individuals from rising to the challenge of collecting donated goods to support the relief effort, some travelling themselves across the EU to make deliveries using their own transport.

Strong and Herd have been petitioning HMRC to enable easements allowing the swift passage of Ukraine relief goods across GB borders. 

Any businesses arranging deliveries of goods donated to UK local collection points, including smaller individual enterprises packing vans full of essential donated supplies, will all have faced customs procedures at the UK borders on export since the crisis began. 

We are now beginning to see some EU Customs authorities implementing easements to allow for the effective movement of the deliveries of these vital supplies through their ports.

The salient points are:

• To make sure that a delivery is prepared for export from GB and the subsequent import into the EU member state.
• That the EU member state authorities in the state of import have made an easement possible to enable that import of humanitarian aid, and whether, or not Transit procedures may be required to support onward delivery.

The Basics

What to do if exporting Humanitarian Aid from GB through the EU to Poland.

1. Check the requirement of the GB port of exit. See the HMRC guidance for the reasons why this is important as it will affect how you move your goods through the port, and whether you need to make any stop at Customs
2. Create documentation that includes:
3. A packing list for the goods, and pack similar goods together
4. The name and address of the party that organised the donation
5. The Economic Operator Registration Indicator number and the receiving charity’s details, if delivering to a registered charity in the EU.
6. The type of goods and the transport designation.

Note: Some charities are declining the offer of goods transported to them directly. 

The link below is to the British Red Cross Ukraine crisis FAQs page.

https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/donate/donation-questions/emergency-appeals/ukraine-crisis-appeal-faqs#People%20of%20Ukraine

The link to the comprehensive government guidance is below.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/taking-humanitarian-aid-out-of-great-britain-to-support-ukraine#check-if-you-can-use-a-simplified-customs-process

Helpful Technical customs information for export

• The generic tariff code to use for goods being exported as disaster relief on the export documentation is 9919000060 (see the UK Global Tariff for details)

https://www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk/commodities/9919000060#export

• The Customs Procedure Code to use to support the export is 10 00 098

Other useful information

The rule of thumb is to coordinate relief efforts through recognised charities. However, for those that are packing vans and coordinating local collections for goods to be driven through the EU to Poland, there are logistics companies that are providing advice free of charge, and some at a reduced rate.

The Road Haulage Association has provided a contact email address where advice may be sought as to those logistics companies that are providing assistance and advice on making customs declarations, and of the practicalities of moving goods over the border into the EU specifically relating to the relief effort.

The link to the Road Haulage Association email specific to the Ukraine crisis can be found here:  ukraine@rha.uk.net

Another example of a coordination point is being offered DB Schenker in Germany. 

The business has opened a collection point in Cologne, Germany for any donations to Ukraine and is opening a transportation rail bridge in coordination with the German national railway Deutsche Bahn, to deliver humanitarian aid across the EU.

The contact details to register freight and coordinate collections are:

 030-720220640 or click on schienenbruecke-ukraine@deutschebahn.com

Supporting regulations and UK Customs Guidance details below:

HMRC

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/taking-humanitarian-aid-out-of-great-britain-to-support-ukraine#check-if-you-can-use-a-simplified-customs-process

The link to The UK Export Support Team is below

https://www.gov.uk/ask-export-support-team

The EU regulation:

COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 1186/2009 of 16 November 2009 setting up a Community system of reliefs from customs duty.

The pertinent regulation includes definition for the import of disaster relief at Article 72.C and Article 74.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:324:0023:0057:EN:PDF

Text:

1. Subject to Articles 75 to 80, goods imported by State organisations, or other charitable or philanthropic organisations approved by the competent authorities shall be admitted free of import duties where they are intended:

(a) for distribution free of charge to victims of disasters affecting the territory of one or more Member States; or

(b) to be made available free of charge to the victims of such disasters, while remaining the property of the organisations in question.

2. Goods imported for free circulation by disaster-relief agencies in order to meet their needs during the period of their activity shall also be granted the relief referred to in paragraph 1, under the same conditions.