Operators involved in exporting goods have been warned to use the summer to get to grips with the government’s new customs declaration process, before its introduction in November.
HMRC delayed the introduction of the new customs declaration service (CDS) in October last year after accepting there was not enough time for freight companies to make the switch from the old system and to enable a smoother transition.
But many traders remain nervous about the new rules, which require additional data fields to complete an export declaration, according to digital trade firm CNS.
It urged traders to do their homework and prepare for the changes now to avoid delays and increasing costs.
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CNS has developed a CDS-compatible system which it said would help companies prepare in advance of the 30 November deadline.
“There are some issues like outages on the system that are impossible to prepare for, but there are a lot of issues traders are now aware of and various learnings from last year, which mean there are known steps that can and should be taken,” said Matthew Bradley, MD at CNS.
“Last year showed us that organisations that trained their staff and prepared through test environments before the deadline were far less impacted by the change in system. The broader industry should learn from this and start testing and preparing now.”
At the end of June, HMRC launched a 10-week consultation asking for views on how customs declaration requirements could be streamlined to make the process easy and cost effective.
