Shipping Trade and Transport News 30th October 2015

Vessel News

M.V. Haidar

Thousands of cattle decomposing

The rotting bodies of the shipwrecked cattle lie on one of the beaches in the Barcarena region, in Para State, after the "Haidar" capsized in Vila do Conde. The ship had on board 4,900 live cows. The animals, which belonged to the Brazilian beef company Minerva Foods, whhich were headed to Venezuela

M.V. AP Temasek


The "APL Temasek" collided with a berth in Port Said at the SCCT Container Terminal on Oct 29, 2015,  . The vessel was being detained until experts have estimated the amount of damage, which may amount to several million US dollars.

 Union Customs Code - Update

Summary of the main changes

·         Annex A: Changes taking effect from 1 May 2016

·         Annex B: Changes only taking effect once a full UCC authorisation is held

Some of the main changes from 1 May 2016 are:

·       mandatory guarantees for most special procedures and temporary storage (TS) – this only applies to new authorisations

·       the ability to make some movements under TS rather than national transit or Electronic Transit System (ETS) – formerly New Computerised Transit System (NCTS)

·       the removal of the earlier sales provisions relating to valuation – but there are some transitional arrangements

·       all communications between customs authorities and economic operators must be electronic.

In addition, some procedures and reliefs will cease or change on 30 April 2016, these are detailed below.

Procedures and Reliefs ending on 30 April 2016

Currently, a €10 waiver of customs duty for free circulation customs declarations applies. Under UCC, where customs duty is payable, no de-minimis exemption will apply.  This does not affect any Community System of Duty Reliefs (CSDR) that you may be eligible for.

Goods being declared to Onward Supply Relief (OSR customs procedure code 42 series) may only be entered using a full customs declaration or the Simplified Declaration Procedure (SDP).

INF documents may no longer be used with Entry in Declarant’s Records (EIDR).  This was previously allowed under Local Clearance Procedure (LCP)

No new imports may be made to these customs procedures after 30 April 2016:

·         Inward Processing Drawback (IP (D)),

·         Processing under Customs Control (PCC),

·         Type D customs warehousing and

·         Low Value Bulking Imports (LVBI)

Inward Processing Drawback (IP (D)) and Low Value Bulking Imports (LVBI) authorisations will cease to be valid and these authorisations may no longer be used to import goods regardless of any expiry dates shown on your authorisations.

LVBI applications will not be accepted for processing after 1 December 2015.  Businesses wishing to use LVBI after 30 April 2016 will require a Simplified Declaration Procedure authorisation for Low Value Imports.

Processing under Customs Control (PCC) authorisation holders will be issued with an IP authorisation number which must be used after 30 April 2016 for any new importations.  The customs debt rules in article 85 of the UCC must be used for the new importations.

Type D customs warehousing authorisation holders will be issued with an amended authorisation with a prefix of:

·         C (if it is currently only a type D authorisation) or

·         E (if it is currently a type E warehouse with type D rules of assessment)

which must be used for all entries to the customs warehouse made after 1 May 2016 and the normal customs debt rules of assessment will apply.

If you are involved in customs clearance as an importer/exporter or customs broker and would like full details contact us through our education commitee at:  education@felixstowe-ac.co.uk 

 

EU Trade News

 

EU Suspends most Belarus sanctions, ties improving

The EU suspended most sanctions against Belarus Thursday, citing "improving relations" after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko released all remaining political prisoners, a statement said.

EU. New Zealand launch free trade talks

New Zealand and the European Union launched free trade talks on Thursday that would give the small farming nation open access to Europe's 500 million consumers.

MEPs throw out GMO compromise law

The European Parliament has rejected by a huge majority a hard-won compromise which would have allowed EU Member States to decide for themselves whether or not to import Genetically Modified Organisms for use in food and animal feed.