The UK may be leaving the EU this Friday, 12th of April and it also may be with No Deal. If this happens the UK Government has issued advice to those wishing to import good from EU countries.

The advice does not apply to Ireland as there are special arrangements.

If the UK leaves the EU with No Deal then importing from the EU will be as if trading with the rest of the world as the UK will have Third Country status.

Transitional Simplified Arrangements

Under import processes for trading with the rest of the world, goods are not released from customs control until you make a full import declaration and pay the duty you owe in full.

But transitional simplified procedures reduce the amount of information you need to give in an import declaration when the goods are crossing the border. They do this by allowing you to defer:

• submitting a full declaration
• paying any duty

If you’re not VAT-registered or if you have excise or customs duties to pay, you must have a duty deferment account to import goods using transitional simplified procedures.

Check what the tariffs will be to see whether you’ll need to pay customs duties on your goods.

If you already trade outside the EU you can use these customs arrangements.

Controlled goods

These require a licence to import: use the controlled goods procedure.

Standard goods

Use the standard goods procedure

Registering online

To register you must:

• have a UK EORI number (an EORI number that starts with GB)
• be established in the UK, this means:
  • you’re a sole trader who is resident in the UK
  • your company or partnership has a registered office in the UK
  • your company or partnership has a permanent place of business in the UK where they carry out their business activities
• be importing goods from the EU into the UK (including goods travelling through the EU from the rest of the world providing they’ve cleared EU customs formalities)

Your agent cannot register for transitional simplified procedures for you, you must do this yourself. Once you’ve registered, your agent will be able to submit customs declarations on your behalf using transitional simplified procedures.

Full details here:Register for simplified import procedures if the UK leaves the EU without a deal