Customer notice 11 June 2010

New declarations for goods entering or leaving the Community must be lodged with Customs as of 1 January 2011. It is the primary responsibility of transport operators to submit to the AREX summary declaration system these declarations, which can only be accepted in electronic form. The submission of declarations in message format requires prior testing with Customs. The alternative for message-based transactions is lodging of declarations using the Customs web channel.

By booking a date for the trader testing of AREX messaging in July or August you will ensure that your transport operations will not stop 1 January 2011, when electronic entry summary declarations become mandatory throughout the EU. You will also be one of the pioneers of the new system.

In order to book a date for testing, the person lodging a declaration – carrier or their representative will need to submit to Customs an application for the AREX EDI sender authorisation (or application for the authorisation of direct message-based transactions, with the application for the AREX EDI sender authorisation as an attachment). If the company already has been approved to act as an AREX EDI sender, but is implementing new electronic declarations that have not been tested yet, they have to agree the testing arrangements directly with the Electronic Customs Clearance Centre.

Traders who start testing in July-August can benefit of several things:

• we can schedule the testing at the date and time most suitable for you
• we can provide more company specific guidance during testing
• the testing official will provide support for your company in launching the production.

Lodgement of AREX declarations at earliest possible time is useful, because:

• all AREX EDI senders, also those approved for direct message exchange, must finish testing by the end of November 2010
• you will avoid the rush when the AREX declarations become mandatory
• your declarations will be correct at first attempt and no time will be needed to resolve errors
• smoothness of import and export operations is not jeopardized.

We will try to schedule the testing proposed for July and August according to the wishes of businesses. Testing dates in September-November will be defined by Customs, in order to offer testing time to all businesses before the end of November. Once scheduled, the testing dates can be changed only on imperative grounds. Customs will define the binding date for launching message exchange so that the 'go live' date rush at the end of the year could be avoided.

The dates for testing of the AREX declaration messages that will become mandatory in early 2011 must be agreed upon as soon as possible and not later than in October 2010. Testing must be started by 1 November 2010 at the latest. All testing must be completed by 30 November 2010. The next possibility to start testing is in January 2011. If you company is not able to comply with these deadlines, the only alternatives to lodge AREX declarations in early 2011 are to make declarations via the web channel or appoint a representative who has been approved to act as an EDI sender in lodging AREX declaration messages.

For further information please contact the customer management of you own customs district or Email: turvatiedot(at)tulli.fi.