Businesses exporting to the EU in a 29 March 2019 ‘no deal’ scenario.
After the UK leaves the EU, in the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario, businesses exporting goods to the EU will be required to follow customs procedures in the same way that they currently do when exporting goods to a non-EU country.
Before exporting goods to the EU, a business will need to:
- register for an UK EORI number. You do not need to take action now but you will want to familiarise yourself with this process
- ensure their contracts and International Terms and Conditions of Service (INCOTERMS) reflect that they are now an exporter
- consider how they will submit export declarations, including whether to engage a customs broker, freight forwarder or logistics provider (businesses that want to do this themselves will need to acquire the appropriate software and secure the necessary authorisations from HMRC). Engaging a customs broker or acquiring the appropriate software and authorisations from HMRC will come at a cost.
When exporting goods to the EU, a business will need to:
- have a valid EORI number
- submit an export declaration to HMRC using their software or on-line, or get their customs broker, freight forwarder, or logistics provider to do this for them. The export declaration may need to be lodged in advance so that permission to export is granted before the goods leave the UK (the export declaration also counts as an Exit Summary Declaration – see section 3)
- businesses may also need to apply for an export licence or provide supporting documentation to export specific types of goods from the UK, or to meet the conditions of the relevant customs export procedure.
When exporting duty suspended excise goods to the EU, a business will need to continue to use EMCS to record the duty suspended movement from a UK warehouse or premises to the port of export. Find out more about how to move, store and trade duty-suspended and duty-paid excise goods.
For information on the VAT process for UK businesses exporting goods to the EU please consult the ‘VAT for businesses if there’s no Brexit deal’ technical notice.