Commercial Information Circulars

24-hour hotline : 23 922 922

e-mail address : enquiry@tid.gov.hk

Ref : EIC 230/2

30 June 2005

Dear Sirs,

Commercial Information Circular No. 227/2005

European Union (EU)* : Requirement to Lodge Pre-arrival Information for Goods Entering into the Community Customs Territory

Further to Commercial Information Circular No. 284/2004 of 12 November 2004, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU have adopted a Regulation to introduce, among other things, a requirement that information on goods should be provided to the customs authorities before they are imported into the EU. Details are set out in Regulation (EC) No. 648/2005, a copy (pdf format) of which is attached to this circular for reference. 

DETAILS

2. In order to allow for appropriate risk-based controls, the EU authorities considered it necessary to establish the requirement of lodging pre-arrival information for all goods brought into the Community customs territory, except for goods passing through by air or ship without a stop within the territory. Such information should be available before the goods are brought into the Community. The current practice of lodging the summary declaration or the customs declaration only when the goods are presented to customs will therefore be changed. 
    
3. Salient features of the new requirement of lodging pre-arrival information are set out as follows -
   1. goods brought into the Community customs territory shall be covered by a summary declaration, with the exception of goods carried on means of transport only passing through the territorial waters or the airspace of the customs territory without a stop within the territory; 
       
   2. the summary declaration shall be lodged before the goods are brought into the Community customs territory. Practical application details including the time limit by which the summary declaration is to be lodged and the format for the summary declaration will be laid down in future implementing regulations;
       
   3. the summary declaration shall be made using a data processing technique. Customs authorities may however accept paper-based summary declarations in exceptional circumstances; and
       
   4. the customs office of entry may waive the lodging of a summary declaration in respect of goods for which a customs declaration is lodged. In such cases, the customs declaration shall contain at least the particulars necessary for a summary declaration.
4. The new arrangements shall be applicable once the future implementing regulations have entered into force. Electronic declaration shall be in place three years after the new arrangements have come into force. We shall keep the trade informed when the EU authorities have promulgated the relevant implementing regulations.

ENQUIRIES

5. For enquiries about the content of this circular, please contact the undersigned at telephone number 2398 5684.

Yours faithfully,



(Miss Sandra SOU)

for Director-General of Trade and Industry

* The EU includes Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.