European Advance Cargo Declaration regime in force
Shipping companies are from 1 January 2011 obliged to provide the relevant European Customs offices with security data for all goods to be exported from or imported to the European Union (EU). Failure to do so properly can result in penalties.
The purpose of this regime is to ensure the security of EU Member States through better monitoring of the movements of goods. The security data will have to be submitted through electronic declarations before the goods are brought into, or out of, the European Union. In addition, a uniform set of EU risk criteria will be applied by European Union Member States when carrying out customs controls on goods entering or leaving the EU.
Unfortunately EU Member States all have different specifications / electronic file formats and some states may not have had the required systems in place to receive the advance cargo declaration information in electronic format on 1 January. We understand that several states that were somewhat behind in this regard have now made some progress and that system testing is taking place.
The Commission has informed us that it has advised these states not to apply sanctions during the phasing-in period of their new systems. However, one should not assume that such tolerance will be shown in those countries where the Customs Office has finished its preparations and is indeed ready to receive the required data in electronic form.
Operators should therefore ensure that they have proper procedures in place to comply with this new regime, and that they are clear in their minds as to who will make the declaration. Liability for any failure will be imposed on the owner. Operators should not therefore simply assume their commercial partners, e.g. charterers, will make the required declarations without their having documented that they will take this responsibility.
The European Commission has prepared a special webpage, containing guidelines with many Q&A and scenarios – to view click here
To assist with defining responsibility, Operators are referred to the INTERTANKO EU Advance Cargo Declaration Charterparty Clauses which can be found here
Source : INTERTANKO
