Additional Codes Will Be Required in CDS

The dates in this blog post might be outdated. For the most up-to-date information, please consult our UK landing page.

As we announced on our Inspire blog last year, HMRC, the United Kingdom's revenue and customs service, is replacing its current computer system, Customs Handling of Import & Export Freight (CHIEF), with the Customs Declaration Service (CDS). HMRC estimates an annual increase from 55 million customs declarations to 255 million after the UK exits the EU, meaning CDS needs to be prepared to process this nearly 500% increase in data when Brexit takes place.

HMRC is soliciting input from software providers who are extensively testing CDS and sharing comments and questions with HMRC, leading to further enhancements that will ensure the system meets all requirements. The current plan is for CHIEF to be taken out of service on September 30, 2020 and all users to be transitied to CDS before then.

Unlike CHIEF, CDS is based on the WCO and UCC data model, standardising data elements per customs flow. This will introduce new but necessary data elements that do not exist in CHIEF, bringing more complexity to the declaration process. All EU codes linked to authorisations and commodity codes will become mandatory under CDS, which UK traders are not familiar with since they weren’t necessary in CHIEF.

Since CAS also uses the WCO and UCC data model, we can automate your declarations flow, guaranteeing compliance with CDS. Our Tariff Measurement Module links additional codes to authorisations or commodity codes and adds them to the respective declaration where applicable. This configuration is set up at the item level, defining the additional codes based on the item ID. Additional codes can consist of references to certificates/licenses that need to be provided or codes of waivers that need to be added to your customs declaration.

Example:

C4T’s customs experts will help set up these additional codes as part of the implementation process, however we have also developed easy-to-read, self-configurable decision tables. This functionality saves you from having to worry about the lack of additional codes blocking or delaying your customs declaration flow.