CUSTOMS CLEARANCE\\\ Brexit? What Brexit?


Should the total lack of meaningful preparation by HMRC be taken as a sign that the Government actually thinks that there will be no ‘hard’ Brexit in March? “I cannot believe that there will be a hard Brexit – because there are no systems for Port Health or anything in place,” states Gavin Osborn, managing director of Rochester-based Osborn Customs Services. He points out that existing systems are currently all EU- owned, there are no signs of the UK government acting to put its own in place and if the Government was serious about a hard Brexit – or even if it just wanted to use the threat of one as a bargaining-chip with the EU – it would surely have started the process two years ago.


While there has been talk by government of systems


based on ANPR technology to keep track of trucks and their loads coming into the country, there have been no efforts whatsoever to put such a systems into operation. There is also no sign of HM Revenue & Customs recruiting extra staff of its own to cope with a surge in customs clearances come March. A paper-based system would


be pretty much unthinkable these days, especially as all the old customs officers who knew how to operate it have long since retired. Meanwhile, like other


Customs agents Osborn faces a dilemma over staff training and recruitment. He explains: “With Brexit and CDS happening at the same time, it’s hard to train staff as CHIEF will be redundant next year and CDS is nowhere near ready. No one, HMRC or software


houses know how the final software will work, meaning training on CDS is not an option and, depending on the Brexit deal, we might not even need additional staff. I imagine the rest of the community are in the same type of limbo.” At the time of writing, in mid-


December, there was no sign at all that CDS was anywhere near ready to go into service. Agents would be extremely reluctant to entrust any monies or clearances to it for the foreseeable future. Business for Osborn Customs


is however quite brisk. Indeed, there has been a surge in enquiries from companies worried that they may for the first time have to carry out clearances on goods moving between the UK and Europe – not that any meaningful advice can be given at this stage. Gavin Osborn would be in


Help is on hand at DSV While its uncertainty customers remains


around Brexit, DSV understands that


need to


examine their business strategy now and decide where adjustment, if any, is needed. It aims to support them through the process and eliminate any problems that may occur,


recognising a need for easily


accessible, reliable customs information per country enabling swiſt responses to customer queries. The AEO-accredited


forwarder has fully trained staff complemented by a number of experts on hand for specific


Customs matters, helping


customers understand complex regulations and offer best practice guidance and a range of solutions. At Felixstowe, Dover and


Harwich DSV offers national clearances for all UK ports - inventory


and non-inventory linked - via CNS or Destin 8. The in-


Issue 1 2019 - Freight Business Journal


favour of an association for customs brokers, pointing out that they currently have no one to go to if they have a problem with


HMRC. Having


19 Brexit? Bring it on… legal


experts on hand who could, for example, sift through previous rulings and generally give advice – much of which is hard to come by from HMRC these days – would be an advantage. As for the idea that customs


brokers should be licenced in some way, Gavin Osborn points out that AEO certification could develop into a de facto licensing system in a few years’ time. Osborn Customs itself


has gained AEO-C (customs) certification. It did involve a certain amount of form- filling, says Gavin Osborn, and it is important to read the accompanying guide, but it’s nothing that should be beyond a competent customs broker, he believes. However, the design of the forms themselves does almost seem to be designed to scare people off.


house customs departments also offer export and import services on behalf of DSV customers for all shipments where


required.


In Heathrow, its offers national clearances to all major airports. Specialist knowledge includes


EORI, duty rates, preferences, licensing, port health,


carnets


and it also has badges to allow clearances at ICDs and ERTS throughout the UK.


Government releases details of customs training funding


The government has released details of the one-off £8 million funding scheme for customs intermediaries and traders announced in September. HMRC announced a one-


off investment of £8 million to support broker training and increased automation to help increase capacity in the sector ahead of March 2019. Customs intermediaries and completing


traders customs


declarations were able to apply for grants to support training and IT investment from 4 December. The government says it engaged


has extensively


with industry bodies and key providers of customs broker services – including freight forwarders, fast parcel operators and


independent customs


brokers – to better understand the challenges they face in supporting existing and new clients. The money includes a £3m


investment by HMRC to increase training provision. It is working with learning service provider Knowledge Pool to increase the number of courses available in the short term, as well as investing in the development of new courses which will be available over the coming months to support customs broker training. Financial Secretary to the


Treasury, Mel Stride, said: “Following extensive engagement with the customs intermediaries sector, we have listened to their concerns about how they will satisfy the extra demand for customs broker services. I’m really pleased we are investing


£8m to support the sector and help them expand their capacity as we prepare to leave the EU on 29 March 2019. “As part of this investment, £5


million in funding is now available to help businesses, based in, or with a branch in, the UK to meet the costs of employee training and IT improvements. Businesses who will benefit from the funding are encouraged to apply early. Applications will close on 5 April 2019, or earlier once all the funding is allocated.” There is £2 million available to


fund training for intermediaries and traders completing customs declarations (or intending to complete customs declarations in the future). The grant will provide funding for up to 50% of the cost of training staff.


There is a further £3 million


available in IT improvement funding, available to small and medium sized employers in the customs intermediaries sector currently completing customs declarations on behalf of importers and exporters. The grant


will fund investment completing in


packaged soſtware that increases the automation and productivity of


customs


declarations. Businesses can apply for one


or both grants, which are being administered by accountancy firm PwC on behalf of HMRC. Businesses who wish to apply for funding should not contact HMRC but instead apply on online. More information, and a link to the online application page are available on GOV.UK.


Some of the Brexit issues have been overstated, says Rob Flowers, owner of Immingham-based MRF Customs. Modern computers and community systems has allowed much more flexible working practices for brokers, he points out. If Brexit comes, and there is an upsurge in entry work as a result, he is confident that he will be able to recruit people to do the work. Former HMRC employees


would already have a good understanding of the Customs Tariff and could be quickly put to work aſter being shown how to carry out customs entries but any reasonably intelligent person with some understanding of computers could soon get to grips with many aspects of making customs entries. “A lot of customs entry work is repetitive,” he points out. “Many companies move the same goods, every day, from the same company to the same company.” Even groupage cargo oſten carries a strong element of repetition. Moreover, he adds, basic tariff


headings are not hard to learn. Anyone with a reasonable level


of application could learn what they need within a year, he argues. Flowers is also sceptical of some


of the more dramatic talks of huge queues of trucks trying to get into the country, dismissing much of it as “scaremongering”. Much information can be pre-entered before it even leaves the ship and large traders will have VAT


deferment accounts. “It’s all about what can be done ahead of the game,” he suggests. Other issues, including handling


groupage cargo could be dealt with by increasing the number of bonded warehouses, he says. Big businesses trading


internationally already have to deal with Intrastat: “The only new thing will be paying VAT and duty.” Intrastat could also solve payment of VAT issues for the oſten-raised issue of the Ireland/Northern Ireland border, he says, adding: “Intrastat is already used there as an ‘honesty box’ for payment of VAT, and the information collected could be used to sort out any issues.” For


traders importing goods


from, say, South Africa into his local port of Immingham via a transhipment in Rotterdam, the picture will scarcely change. All that will be needed will be a T-form to cover the Rotterdam- Immingham leg. Like other people in the


freight industry, Flowers has little confidence that the new CDS customs computer will be fully operational come March next year, but again it shouldn’t be a major issue as far as his customers are concerned. “It may mean a few extra boxes to be filled in, but largely the information given will be exactly the same as before.” Nor does he envisage any major issues in training his own staff.


Firms embrace digi-customs


Most companies are planning to digitize their customs processes or have already taken the first steps to do so, according to a study by soſtware company AEB, in cooperation with the DHBW University in Stuttgart. ‘Clear the track for Digital


Customs Management’, found that over 35% of 435 respondents said that they had already implemented at least one project to digitize customs operations, while a similar number already have projects in the planning or implementation phase. Study co-author, DHBW


Professor for Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Dr Dirk Hartel, said that part of the motivation was the increasing complexity of global customs issues: “We assume that the public debate about the growing number of trade conflicts boosts the interest


of management in digitizing customs processes. Companies need efficient standard processes to free up time for the experts in their customs departments to solve problems and work on strategically important tasks.” But while the study also found


that 73% of respondents expected personnel costs to fall more than 10% as a result of


digitization,


only 7% actually planned to cut personnel in their customs departments in the coming three years, due to the shortage of qualified personnel. Fellow co-author, AEB board


member Dr Ulrich Lison, explained: “The aim is more to handle the workload with the existing personnel


rather than actually


downsize,” to prevent customs departments


critical bottleneck”. www.aeb.com/gtm-study.


from becoming “a


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