Hi everybody, and welcome to our webinar focused on helping you B to C businesses navigate customs clearance in Europe. I'm Ricky Palmer and I'll be your host along with my colleague Carolina Soroka. Good morning, everyone. We're both working at FedEx specialized in global clearance, so we're happy to have the opportunity to share our expertise and tips with you today. As we have an audience from various countries, some with existing clearance customs knowledge and some who wish to gain knowledge and start cross-border shipping, we'll be covering a range of topics today. First, we'll look at commercial invoice details and how you get your documentation right. Additionally, we will talk on common clearance issues and how to overcome them. Then we'll focus on what to know when shipping to non EU countries in Europe. There's no need for customs clearance when shipping between EU member states, but that can change when you send your parcel outside of the EU or into Europe to or from non EU countries such as Great Britain, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. There are also some bat simplifications to take into consideration. Finally, we'll have time at the end to review your questions and answer some. We may not be able to answer them all, but we'll come back to you. So let's begin. Over to you, Carolina. Thanks, Ricky, and hello again everyone. So the best way to avoid customs delays is to make sure that all your documentation is correct. We are going to talk about the Commercial Invoice and Inco firms as these are the crucial elements when shipping internationally. So let's get the basic right. Commercial Invoice known as ACI is a crucial document between seller and buyer and is required for all international shipments. CIA provides key information to customs how to clear your goods and regulate any government charges such as duties and taxes. It's worth to mention that there are two customs invoice when it comes to shipping your parcel. The commercial invoice needs to cover export and input requirements. Filling out the CI with correct information will help your package to have smooth delivery and clearance, but also will keep you and us compliant with customs rules and regulations. It might look like a lot, but honestly it's a simple information. Let me go through it with you then. So we need the purpose of the shipment. For example, if it's commercial shipment, return or gift. Correct information for the recipient and importer addressed contact details. Proper description of the goods being shipped, what is it, what is it used for and what materials it is made from. Harmonize code for the shipping goods. The 1st 6 digits are the same for the majority of the countries and it's used by customs to classify the product being shipped. This way duties and taxes are calculated. We need value of the goods of the commercial invoice quantity. Depending on the item items being shipped, they might be different units of measure. For example, if you are shipping jewellery, we're going to measure metal in grams, but we're going to need the carat for diamonds. And finally the origin of the goods. As preferential trade agreement can apply. We advise you to use We advise you to use electronic trade documents ETD to upload or create your commercial invoice as it's very handy and helpful. FedEx feature. And now let's have a quick pull to check your knowledge on input terms. So I would like you to answer the simple question. Just choose one of the answers. So who's responsible for determining the input terms? Seller, buyer, or carrier? I was going to give you a few seconds to answer this question. Just click with your mouse to choose the the correct answer. So we've got seller, buyer and carrier. Yeah, I will going to give you a few more seconds to answer this question. Yeah, it's very straightforward question. I will going to few. I will going to give you a few more minutes. You just need to click with your mouse, Yeah and decide about the about your answer. So if it's seller, buyer for carrier, OK then. So we will check your answers then. OK. So over 85% of you choose the seller, then we've got the buyer and then we've got the carrier. So the carrier is not responsible for determining the income terms. It's upon to seller and buyer to the set to decide about the shipping terms. And on the next slide, we will going to discuss income terms further. So when engaging with international shipping, it will be useful to know income terms rules. There are describing obligations and responsibilities between seller and buyer during the shipping process. Obligations such as who is responsible for paying custom charges, duties and taxes, transportation or bearing the risk for loss or damage of the parcel. Inco terms allows to avoid misunderstanding between involved parties. Stellar and buyer and support smoother shipping process. So we have 11 INCO terms rules, each of them assigned various obligations and responsibilities between buyer and seller. DDP and are the examples of this trading rules for B2C business. DDP means that your customer is barely involved in the clearance process. All the shipping and customs formalities are on the seller side so the customer can receive goods smoothly. That means that you as a seller are taking responsibilities for transportation costs, documentation, insurance, whereas the buyer is responsible for import formalities including payments of duties and taxes. Income terms put enormous obligations on the buyer and seller, so please choose the correct one for your business. Additionally, when you are booking your shipment through our shipping application, please do remember to indicate the correct party responsible for paying charges and provide account number if needed. More information on input terms rules are available on our website. I do encourage you as well to check details on the International Chamber of Commerce over to your Akina. Thank you, Carolina. There are some common clearance issues that we can easily avoid. Before I cover these, I will just ask you a quick question which will pop up on your screen now, can you declare 0 value for goods when they are shipped as samples? I'll give you a few moments to click A yes or B no. So just to repeat, can you declare 0 value for your goods when they are shipped as samples? Give you a few more seconds. OK, let's have a look at the results. So 85% of you have answered no, which is correct. And to the others, we'll look over this in more information in more detail. Now. The most common reason for clearance delays is due to insufficient information. Although this sounds basic, if you can get it right at the start, you had avoid delays later. As Carolina mentioned, clear goods description is the best way to ensure your package doesn't get stuck in customs. The more detail you can provide, the more likely it is you will ensure compliance. This includes detail in the types of goods you are shipping correctly. We have a guide on how to provide a good description. Where possible, avoid keywords when describing colors or patterns like coral, cheetah, Python as this could flag the shipment for further checks. It's also important to provide correct contact details for the shipper and recipient so they can be reached in case of any queries. Finally, when shipping, you must also provide an accurate value of the goods. The value of the goods is used to calculate customs duty and import that. This is called the customs value. Even if there is no duty or that to pay on the goods or your shipping samples, it's still important to use the correct value. This is because the customs value is used when collating trade statistics for your destination country. Under declaring values to evade or reduce customs charges would be a missed declaration and can result in customs issuing penalties. Countries such as Great Britain, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey and not member nations of the EU. This requires additional consideration when shipping goods between those countries and EU nations. Trade regulations apply and next we'll talk you through some of these. There are many countries that have trade agreements with each other. The benefit is your goods could be eligible for either full or partial duty relief when imported. To qualify for preferential duty relief a number of requirements must be fulfilled. For example, the product must be made in the preference country or if shipped from the EU it can be made in any EU country. The invoice should have a description with the tariff heading which determines the level of relief available. Valid proof of the country of origin must be provided like a statement of origin by the exporter which confirms the items are made in the specified country or the importers knowledge that the item is produced in that country. Here you can see an example of a trade agreement. Let's look at Switzerland as an example. Goods originating in Switzerland are eligible for preferential rates of duty as long as there is an origin declaration or EUR 1 document from the exporter. The origin must be provided on the invoice or any other commercial document describing the originating product in sufficient detail to allow its identification. Invoice declarations have to be signed if no authorization number is provided. Please make sure you check the origin preference requirements for the country you are shipping to. Please refer to our shipping channel. Just to clarify, if you are shipping from Switzerland to France and the goods were made in Switzerland, then Swiss Origin declaration or a UR 1 can be used. However, if you're shipping from Switzerland to France but the goods were made in China, then the goods are not eligible for preferential duty relief. And now let's have another very quick poll to see who pays VAT on goods coming to the Great Britain under 135 lbs. A, the recipient or B the shipper. I'll give you a few moments to answer these. So when shipping to the UK goods valued under 135 lbs, who pays the VAT? Just give you a few more seconds. OK, let's have a look at the answers. So this one is quite split with 66% stating the recipient. I'll cover this in more detail now for business to consumer shipments of qualifying goods up to 135 lbs. These can be cleared on a bulk process known as birds, which is the bulk import reduced data set. The sender is responsible for the VAT payment to customs. To qualify, the goods must be a purchase, so shipments like samples returns not eligible for this procedure. This requires the shipper to have VAT registration in Great Britain for this bulk entry. FedEx does not check if the VAT has been paid. Good news that there is no duty payable on this process for shipments over 135 lbs. Goods must go through formal customs clearance. For B to C shipments, the private person acts as the importer and no action is required from them. FedEx submits any import duties incurred and charges these, including an advancement fee, to the paying party in accordance with who the shipper has nominated on the airway bill. Postponed Fat accounting, known as PVA, was introduced by Customs for all GB VAT registered traders to account for the relevant import fat on their VAT return rather than paying it immediately or through their duty deferment count and reclaiming it as input tax using the HMRC Form C79. This applies to imports with a commercial value of over 135 lbs. Using PVA helps maintain uninterrupted cash flow and reduces the administrative burden. Something else worth knowing when shipping from Great Britain to Northern Ireland is there is a new arrangement being put in place called the Windsor Framework, which will come into force on the 31st of March 2025. This sets out new arrangements sending parcels from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. It's part of a trade agreement between Northern Ireland, Great Britain and the EU. This includes the recent government updates safeguarding the union announced in Belfast January 24. The changes from March next year mainly affect business to business shipments, although business to consumers will need to provide simple goods description for all items in the shipment. This should be in plain English and the easiest way to do this is provide a commercial invoice. Commodity codes, also known as HS codes or tariff headings are recommended but they're not mandatory. Consumer goods will move without formal declaration. We will supply data to customs on these per movement. Over to you Carolina for another non EU country. Thanks, Ricky. So let's talk about Turkey then. Please pay attention when you're shipping to Turkey. As new regulation was implemented for e-commerce shipments to key information, we wanted to share with you the value treasure for goods imported by private individual accepted for simplified custom declaration called SCD drop from €150 to €30. It means that all shipment above €30 are clear as a formal entry. Formal clearance is done by FedEx vendor brokers. What does it mean to you as a business? Your buyer will have to pay duties and taxes on items above €30. Therefore, it's good let them know in advance about this and don't forget to give us their contact details on the commercial invoice. So we can reach them easily. Additionally, we would like to share with you more information on this new regulation, because tax will change. So tax we're gonna increase from 20 to 30% for goods imported from the European Union to Turkey. And for goods being imported from other countries than European Union tax will increase from 30% to 60%. On our website you will find additional relevant information for you and your customer on this new Turkish regulation. And lastly, we will cover bad simplifications including the import one stop shop scheme and Vogue. These are two straightforward processes to be aware of which allows your business to streamline that process. In case you haven't heard about it, we wanted to talk to you about iOS. So European Union introduced the Import One startup system as a simple way to collect and pay VAT on e-commerce import to you. Quick reminder for all of us, but is applicable for all commercial goods imported into the European Union regardless of the value. iOS simplifies shipping and streamline the VAT process duty is not paid under the iOS scheme when that is paid at the time of purchase. IOS rules apply for goods being imported into the EU from non EU locations to a private individual. The value of the ship can't exceed €150. Excise goods are not allowed under the scheme when registering for iOS. A seller who ships goods into multiply EU countries will only need one VAT registration in any EU country if the business is already established in the EU. If not, you need to appoint an intermediary to register and declare the VAT on your behalf. So making use of the iOS system allows you to have efficient and much faster customs clearance for your and for your customer. As the VAT is already collected before shipping. As a seller you will need to communicate your iOS number to the party responsible for making the customs declaration with FedEx. Please use the shipping application to provide your 12 digit iOS number. Additionally, marketplaces can also become deemed suppliers and handle VAT collection for the sellers B to C transaction under the ISS system. Now we are moving up the north of the Europe and another great simplification to be aware of if you are shipping to Norway is the VAT on e-commerce work. So VAT on e-commerce is managed by the Norwegian establishment and online retainers needs to register with local tax authorities in order to benefit from this setup. It really simplify your VAT payment process for you and for your customer allows to have smoother clearance and avoid extra administrative fees. Goods purchased under BOA or duty free. There are also certain groups of products which can be covered by VOC, such as alcohol, foodstuff, supplements or pharmaceutical products. Again, please do remember put your VOC identification number in the tax field, then we can declare your VOC number to the Norwegian authorities at importation. Over to you, Rikina. Thanks Carolina for luxury fashion business to consumer One thing to consider when shipping luxury items like bags or belts is sight ease. This is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is an international agreement between governments to protect endangered plants and animals controlling the trade of protected species. When shipping goods subject to societies, the shipper must apply for an export societies permit. The shipping channel must there are the shipping paperwork must be clear on what items are subject to societies. The shipper needs to inform the carrier that their shipment contains societies goods so that the permit can be endorsed by the authorities on export. If the permit is not endorsed on export, the shipment could be seized. The recipient must also apply for an import permit, which will need to be sent to the carrier for clearance. The carrier must provide both the original endorsed export permit and the original import permits to be endorsed by customs to allow clearance. To find out more about CITES, like how to obtain the permits, you can visit our shipping channel website. We've added the information in the Resource Center back to you, Carolina. Thank you, Ricky. So to summarise what we've been through, get the best required meaning, provide a good description of your goods, complete commercial invoice and you are ready to go with the smooth clearance. Pay attention to details such as income terms, HS code, value of the goods. Be aware of trade agreements that could impact customs duty payable by you or your customer. Finally, ask about what scheme as as this can simplify your process greatly. At FedEx, we set up a lot of tools and information, but you can also reach out to your sales Rep when you need support. Thank you very much for listening today. Now it's over to you and does anyone have questions? We will check our chats. We won't be able to go through all this questions. We will pick. We're going to pick a few to answer them now during the webinar, although you will get the information offline to all your questions. OK. Maybe I will start. I do have a question about the about the. So about what simplification when you're shipping to when you're shipping to Norway, is the 3000 Norwegian Core Forum applicable to the total order value or for the individual product? OK, so the 3000 Norwegian Quorum is applicable for the individual product within the shipment. So you can have, so your customer can have several products below that value on one shipment on the commercial invoice and it will be still applicable for VoIP. However, if one of these items on the commercial invoice on the commercial invoice will exceed this 3000 Norwegian Quorum, then the shipment is not applicable for this scheme and formal entry will be will be applied for this type of shipment. Then I can see another question about DDP inco term. Does DDP inco term is possible for all the countries? So it depends on the IT depends on the country because in some cases the local, the local authorities, they're not allowing to be paid duties and taxes for the oversea party. So it will be down to the importer of the record. It will be down to your customer to pay all the duties and taxes when it comes to the shipment, but I do believe your SETS representative will help you to have more details on this. DDP countries as well. OK. A few questions here. Thanks, Karen. So a question regarding CITES and which countries need an import permit. On our FedEx shipping channel we have a link to the CITES websites and you should be able to get information about what products for what appendix needs. The import permits strongly suggest getting everything in place before shipping any side to these goods. There's a question relating to TVA numbers to be registered in UK. So when a commercial shipment is being sent to the UK under 135 lbs, it's the shipper's responsibility to handle the VAT payments to customs. So the shipper does need to apply for a GB VAT number. Hope that one covers that. OK, we've got a question on warranty replacements and if you're obliged to play customs duties. If a shipment is sent out of the UK to another country and a replacement is sent, duty is relieved that the VAT will need to be paid. So you only get duty relief on replacement items. Ricky, are you having another one or should I? Should I have the? Call one one last question from myself here regarding the values on samples, as they're not end products, the customer tests the products and after the afterwards they'll be destroyed. So this will allow for the the items to be imported duty and VAT free. They state that there's no commercial value, so we would need to have an intrinsic value. So what what's the actual goods cost to either make? What would replacement value be? It just needs to be the actual value of the items themselves that need to be declared. It won't affect any duty of that payments. OK, So someone asked about the about the age results, what will be the best place to to look for HS code? We do have the tools on the backside that will allows you to find a proper HS code. But also I do encourage you to go on the European website and on the local country that you're intended to ship the goods because they do have also good information about the income trends. And also what I have mentioned, the six first digits are the same for the majority of the countries. Get the basic information about the about the ages. There is also some question about the importer, about the importure of the record and if it's the private individual and the difference between the company. So, so basically the importer of the record on your shipping paperwork, on the commercial invoice. And I do believe it will be our last question that I was going to answer. It's the party that will gonna receive the import declaration because this party was indicated as the importer of the record. So in your case, it will be the private individual. In many cases when you're shipping B to C, private individual is also their consignee. Yes, because then we will going to shift to the specific address. However, it might happened that the importer of the record, we're going to give you the home address, but the shipping address will be, for example, for their place of work. Then we're going to need to do these two addresses separately. But on the commercial invoice, if the shipping address and the importer address is the same, you can just simply indicate that yes, the importer and the consignee is the same party. Right. I have one last question that's just come in. How many tariff codes can be sent in the same shipment? This is actually limited by the customs clearance system in each destination country. So for the UK currently it's 99 CDs are looking to if have that set up to 999, but currently it's 99. So that will be the questions that we can answer live for today. Just a reminder that the resources can be downloaded in the webinar console. Over to you, Carolina. And I saw questions relating to to retro and to US. So we will be covering this questions. We will be covering this topic on our next webinars. So for the time being, thank you again for attending this webinar. We hope you find it useful. Don't forget to download more information such as useful links from the Resource Center. And as I've mentioned to you earlier, we would like to invite you for our next webinars about easy clearance to US temporary export, import clearance procedures and return goods. See you next time. Have a good day. Thank you. _1734009468866