To meet your compliance obligations and minimise disruption, make sure your business is prepared for the new import controls. Taking effect on April 30th, 2024, these regulations will introduce new requirements for imports into Great Britain (GB). If you have any concerns or queries, please contact us.
In the meantime, let’s look at these changes in detail:
Entry through Designated Border Control Points
From April 30th, 2024, traders must ensure goods from the EU/EFTA enter GB through appropriately designated Border Control Posts (BCPS) or Control Points (CPs) to specify their commodity type. Risk-based documentary, identity and physical checks will take place here.
High-risk plants and plant products from the EU, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein
Inspections for these will change from Places of Destination (PoDs) to BCPs and CPs. When called upon, you must present consignments for inspection here.
Fishery Products documentation
If you import fish or fishery products for human consumption, you must upload IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) documents to the CHED import notification in IPAFFs before submission.
Imports from non EU-EFTA risk-assessed countries will align with the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM)
Imports will be simplified, and health certification for low-risk animal products will be removed.
- There will be reduced physical and identity checks on medium-risk animal products.
- Check rates will be adjusted, and import control requirements for some low-risk plants and some low-risk plant products will be removed.
- High- and medium-risk plants will be subject to proportionate levels of checks at Border Control Posts (BCPs) or Control Points (CPs) upon entry into GB.
- The requirement of a Phytosanitary Certificate (PC) and CHED import notifications made on IPAFFS will remain.
If you are unsure about any of the above, please contact us for guidance
Or find out more about non-EU/EFTA BTOM risk categories for Animal Products or non-EU/EFTA BTOM risk categories for Plant Products.
How to submit your import notifications and customs declarations:
Submit import notifications through Defra’s Import of Products, Animals, Food, and Feed System (IPAFFS).
Submit customs declarations via HMRC’s CDS (Customs Declaration Service).
You must ensure there is alignment between these systems
Otherwise you may encounter a ‘No Match’ error, which could divert your consignments to Border Control Posts.
- Background processes validate the import notification reference, commodity code(s) and net weight(s) of consignments.
- These processes provide the SPS inspection decisions for the import notification to CDS.
- All cross-checking import notifications and customs declarations for consignments from EU/EFTA countries will be enforced from April 30th, 2024.
Here’s what you must do from April 30th, 2024:
- Submit the import notification before the customs declaration.
- Address any inconsistencies promptly to prevent “No Match” errors.
- If any inconsistency is found and there is an error message on CDS and the IPAFFS dashboard, correct the errors in both systems as quickly as possible. You must do this before the consignment reaches the port of departure to avoid the consignment being directed to a BCP.
We know this will be a challenging transition for many businesses
Fortunately, our team at Cutraco can help you proactively prepare for this change to prevent any disruption to your business. In fact, we are currently supporting companies and processing customs declarations for products that are covered by the new regulations.
If you have any questions or concerns about these new import controls, please contact us today.