UK Details Changes to Transit Procedures for After Leaving EU

The United Kingdom is making changes to its transit procedures to prepare for its planned withdrawal from the European Union, HM Revenue and Customs said in guidance posted March 13. Though the U.K. will lose access to the EU’s Union Transit procedures, which govern transit shipments between EU member states, it has come to an agreement with the EU to join the Common Transit Convention, which applies to the EU, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Turkey, North Macedonia and Serbia.

Those changes will be reflected in the New Computerized Transit System, and will be implemented in NCTS in four phases beginning on March 29, HMRC said. They will “align our system with the CTC, implement system enhancements and ... reflect the change of country status of the UK following our exit from the EU,” HMRC said. If the U.K. and EU reach an agreement on Brexit that includes a transition period, then the change of country status will not apply until the end of that implementation period, HMRC said.

Major changes from a trade perspective are that there will no longer be a requirement to submit Transports Internationaux Routiers (TIR) movements to NCTS, and the TIR Type B guarantee and TIR declaration type will no longer be valid when starting a TIR movement from the U.K. “TIR when moving in the EU will still require declarations to be submitted to NCTS. This will mean that at the first point of entry to any EU Member State, a TIR movement started in the UK will require a TIR submission to the NCTS before entering that territory,” HMRC said.

Also, “to meet the terms of the CTC, “guarantees will be managed within the system and a reference amount for the goods must be calculated and input into” the declaration. And as a common transit country, the “Office of Transit” field of the transit declaration will be mandatory for all movements, including in EU countries. “When entering any new territory, the goods moving under Transit must be presented to an Office of Transit on entry. Following our exit from the EU, this Office of Transit formality will be required at all points of entry to the EU,” HMRC said.