EU customs reforms

By Business West's in-house Customs Agent, Joe Goldsworthy

On Thursday 18th May, the European Union announced there would be sweeping reforms to the way declarations are dealt with in the EU. The changes are hailed to be the biggest reforms to customs since 1968.

Most notably, there will be the introduction of the EU Customs Hub, which will eliminate hidden costs or paperwork for consumers in the EU. This should be available to e-commerce traders by 2028 and opened to all importers by 2032. This essentially means that trusted traders who are part of the Authorised Economic Operator (AEO) scheme will be subject to fewer checks than before, and in some cases, trusted traders may completely forgo customs formalities. 

The changes will take several years to implement, but so far there are encouraging signs that exporting to the European Union may eventually get easier.

Should I join the AEO scheme?

If you have not already explored the option, it may be well worth your while to apply for AEO status. To achieve AEO status, a good system of auditing and compliance needs to be in place to prove that you are a trusted trader. It is therefore important that your declarations are fully HMRC compliant, and that you have a robust stockkeeping record, so that any requested audit trails can be easily retrieved.

For those who want more information on the process of applying for AEO status, please feel free to contact Business West.