Important Customs news for UK/Eu leatherworkers

[jcuk]

Lets hope common sense prevails

[Constabulary]

I´m not certain of what is going on now? Looks like no import fees / tax / vat added but custom papers required... or not?

But I´m not really sure how to act if someone order from the UK.

Meanwhile most parcels service no longer take packages for the UK (except UPS afaik) but that seems to be because of the new Virus pattern...

Weird times... 

[fredk]

1 hour ago, Constabulary said:

. . . 

Meanwhile most parcels service no longer take packages for the UK (except UPS afaik) but that seems to be because of the new Virus pattern...

Weird times... 

you think thats confusing. . . . many courier companies are refusing to take packages from GB destined for N.I. ! All within the UK but they think that the VAT & customs will be different after 1/1/21

[Constabulary]

Really?   

I hope they come up with some proper information soon. "Best" information I found so far came from the DHL Express website (German only) but nothing else yet.

https://www.dhl.de/de/geschaeftskunden/express/infos-knowhow/brexit-special.html

(At the moment) I guess it will require a commercial invoice and / or a custom declaration form. But either side will neither charge VAT nor custom fees of any kind.

Even the UK Customs website does not show an update with an "after deal date".

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/get-your-eu-business-ready-from-1-january-2021

 

Edited December 29, 2020 by Constabulary

[Constabulary]

Talked to some tax consultants over here - they all recommend to no longer ship to the UK just because it would cause too much trouble (especially for small businesses) if something does not fully match the new UK regulations and they seem to be (yet) not fully clear. F.i. handmade items made from foreign (3rd country) raw material or antiques / collectibles form 3rd party countries (thats what I asked for).

2nd info I heard of (not confirmed) items shipped from the EU are tax free ONLY when they have a proof of origin that proves the items are made in the EU otherwise tax and vat may apply.

So yeah - at this point I think it´s better to no longer ship to the UK until they have cleared up everything but honestly I guess that will never be the case - just too many uncertainties.

Does not sound like smart deal.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Constabulary

[fredk]

I've heard back from Le Prevo in England (they were on Christmas holidays until today)

A parcel which previously cost me £13.50 plus VAT ( = £16.20 )  is now going to cost, at best, £75 plus duties. Mainly due to the extra paperwork the courier will have to do as well as anticipated taxes to be paid

It may be cheaper for me to collect the leather myself! (a joke, as the ferry would cost me £300, plus fuel costs of £32)

I don't want to change from Le Prevo as a supplier. I've been buying from them for over 20 years and they've served me well. I have an old-fashioned sense of loyalty

[Constabulary]

What?  75 GBP VS 13.5 GBP? Same country just a different Island - no changes I´d say. Or did they probably get something wrong?

BTW - Did you vote for leave?

I just have checked College Sewing cause I want to order another servo sooner or later (+ other bits) and want to stay with JACK Servos cause CS even has spare parts for them (you never know - can´t be wrong to have a source). So they charge no UK VAT and shipping to Germany is 18 GBP by DPD and 22.75 GBP  by UPS (+/- ) but I of course have to pay the German VAT on my end. I think the carrier will charge me the VAT + a handling fee but I do not know if I have to pay taxes cause the Jack Servos are made in China and not UK (obviously). I think I will start a "Trial Balloon" and see how it works - I just have to figure what it costs and how it works.

[fredk]

1 hour ago, Constabulary said:

What?  75 GBP VS 13.5 GBP? Same country just a different Island - no changes I´d say. Or did they probably get something wrong?

yeah, just because NI stays in the EU trading union, but also in the UK trading  

1 hour ago, Constabulary said:

BTW - Did you vote for leave?

I didn't vote  

[Constabulary]

14 hours ago, fredk said:

I didn't vote  

so we can´t blame you , well maybe a little bit

Have you tried a "parcel forwarder" who is collecting and consolidating your packages and send them to you combined in one package? Know what I mean?

Like this one but there are many more:

https://www.forward2me.com/

Not sure if this is an option for you but maybe worth checking.

[fredk]

5 hours ago, Constabulary said:

Have you tried a "parcel forwarder" who is collecting and consolidating your packages and send them to you combined in one package? Know what I mean?

current information is that all of these companies have stopped deliveries into NI and may not resume due the extra paperwork required.

Where else in the world does a sender need to fill in multiple customs form for a letter / package / parcel going to an address within their own country?

[Constabulary]

So far - what I experienced with selling things on Ebay to UK customers. Ebay charges the customer automatically 20% VAT but thats just a transit payment which goes to your paypal account but immediately is withdrawn from Ebay again. So if you wouldn´t see it you would not even notice it. So not really a big issue for the seller - so far.

Abbey England also has a Blog on Brexit for their customers:

https://www.abbeyengland.com/blog/breaking-through-brexit.html

College Sewing is (afaik) mainly shipping with UPS so you usually do not have to go to the customs office cause they do the import paper work for you (based on the invoice CS has included) but UPS may charge a fee for that beside VAT & custom fees. I haven´t ordered from CS after Brexit. Maybe someone else did and likes to share his/her experiences.

 

 

[fredk]

Latest info; a rant!

The 'Grace' period of N.I. imports is coming to an end now and things are looking bad.

Shortages of fresh fruit and veggies and other foods in the shops*. From this weekend the main shops will not be allowed to bring in processed meats, eg sausages, pies, sausage rolls. The local Royal Mail tells me there is excess of 5 million postal items from N.I. to GB sitting in Liverpool docks waiting to clear customs, and approx 10 million postal items from GB to N.I. Worse is that over 2000 types of regular pharmaceutical drugs are no longer allowed into N.I. Those are drugs Ill people need. The Jewish community here, only about 250 people, cannot get their Kosher foods

* in 1980 I spent a holiday in Jugoslavia and not since then have I seen food shelves in supermarkets totally empty or some with buying restrictions on them eg, 'Only two items per customer'

I know you guys aint stoopid but let me put this in a context for you; imagine that all goods and mail in and out of Texas going to the other 49 States has to go through 'customs' because Mexico says it has to. And Mexico also puts restrictions on what meats, bread, fruits and veggies and other goods are allowed into Texas to be sold. Maybe Uncle Joe would allow it but Brother Donald sure wouldn't!

PS. I was in touch with Le Prevo who got in touch with the courier. Each hide I buy would need a certificate signed off by a qualified veterinarian (we call them vets) which would cost approx £35 to £50 per. Thats on top of the other courier fee! So 5 hides which used to cost me £16.50 delivered would now cost about £265 to £340. Roughly, the same sort of hides from Tandy in Texas would cost me £32 delivery - inc all taxes!  The Le Provo courier cost is not 100% certain. I'm told, buy, get shipped and see what charges will be made, but I can't afford to take that risk

But, as Baldrick would say; I have a cunning plan. As cunning as a cunning fox teaching cunning at the university of cunning. I have a friend in England I could get the Le Prevo hides shipped to . . . .

[Constabulary]

CS still does not ship to the EU. They said since January all packages they sent to the EU have been returned (that was in May) by the carriers (UPS & DPD) so they do not ship to the EU until this is solved. Unbelievable. Feels like I want to plutonium from the Russians - thats probably easier meanwhile.

Today I sent a request to Trojan Sewing asking if they have successfully delivered package to the EU but yet no reply.

[Arturomex]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

I know you guys aint stoopid but let me put this in a context for you; imagine that all goods and mail in and out of Texas going to the other 49 States has to go through 'customs' because Mexico says it has to. And Mexico also puts restrictions on what meats, bread, fruits and veggies and other goods are allowed into Texas to be sold. Maybe Uncle Joe would allow it but Brother Donald sure wouldn't!

Hardly accurate, Fred. Casting Mexico as the EU is a poor choice of example. The UK knew what they were signing up for when they inked the Northern Ireland Protocol. A deal is a deal. You can't blame the EU for Boris Johnson's stupidity.

[fredk]

1 minute ago, Arturomex said:

Hardly accurate, Fred. Casting Mexico as the EU is a poor choice of example. The UK knew what they were signing up for when they inked the Northern Ireland Protocol. A deal is a deal. You can't blame the EU for Boris Johnson's stupidity.

The EU just imposed 800 new rules in the last three/four weeks. Rules which were not agreed upon at all. The UK knew what they signed up for but not these 800 new rules which if not obeyed the EU will take the UK to court. The court action has already been started. And there are to be a further 1200 new EU regulations by Christmas time

[Arturomex]

Fred,

I've tried to find these 800 new rules and the  proposed 1,200 new EU regulations but I've come up dry. Could you please point me in the right direction?

Regards,

Arturo

[Klara]

I second that request. For I don't believe the EU capable of passing 800 rules in 4 weeks

@Constabulary No idea who CS is, but there's enough leather to be had in EU countries. France, Italy, Czech Republic...

 

[Constabulary]

@Klara Not a leather supplier - CS is short for College Sewing Machine Parts

Just got a response form another UK supplier - quote:

Quote

This brexit thing is a complete cock up... we should have never left... as from the 1st of July the tax systems to send orderd out to the EU have changed... So for the last month Ive been trying to sort this out... I expect it will take another week or so...

 

Edited July 29, 2021 by Constabulary

[fredk]

I cannot show you the info sent to me by my MLA - a government minister. Its confidential in nature

However, scan down through this on-line news story. about 1/4 down, just above a photo of M. Martin

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1463424/brexit-live-news-ursula-von-der-leyen-visit-ireland-micheal-martin-northern-ireland

and The Belfast Telegraph news report

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/eu-dropped-800-new-regulations-on-northern-ireland-without-notice-says-government-40654157.html

[Klara]

@Constabulary Any chance you could find what you need here: https://www.armator.eu/index_en.html ? 

I've discovered that there is is very little I want to buy that I need to get from the UK (mainly books). And strangely enough, British goods (i.e. food) have not yet disappeared from French supermarkets...

Edited July 29, 2021 by Klara

[chrisash]

15 hours ago, Arturomex said:

Hardly accurate, Fred. Casting Mexico as the EU is a poor choice of example. The UK knew what they were signing up for when they inked the Northern Ireland Protocol. A deal is a deal. You can't blame the EU for Boris Johnson's stupidity.

As with this treaty, the framework was the treaty but both sides were able to make adjustments for difficulties not foreseen in the treaty. just like many other treaties. In this case there is obvious differences in the interpretation  and the EU will not negotiate them. the sole purpose is to stop goods going to Eire from Northern Ireland. The 800 new items has been mentioned by the relevant minister but not yet published to my knowledge.

For one supermarket truck transiting from Great Britain mainland to Northern Ireland now needs 750 pages on average of paperwork plus vets checks on all meat products

Whilst we have the nuclear option to use article 16 of the treaty to tear it up, we have not yet used it but tried continually to negotiate a settlement that is fair to Northern Ireland

[Arturomex]

Thanks, Fred. Appreciate it. I'm curious to see what these 800 items are.

The following is from a reddit posting:

"Once again: the UK government agreed to this. The NIP makes it quite clear that Northern Ireland will remain in the single market and therefore subject to EU regulations. No ifs, no buts.

But let's not be naive about this: when they signed it, they didn't do so in good faith. They just needed an "oven ready" deal to go into an election with. They never had the slightest intention of upholding their obligations and weaseling out of them was always the plan. This will have consequences, and not only because the EU will retaliate for breaking the treaty. Those checks and rules are not there because the EU wanted them there. They are there to keep NI in the single market. The only reason NI is still in the single market is because of the border that will have to be set up around it if it leaves. No amount of twisting and turning is going to change the fact that there is a legal and practical requirement for a hard border between two different regulatory and customs regimes. The UK government is simply trying to lift the NIP out of the wider context of Brexit so that they can ignore this.

The NIP is not the problem, Brexit is. The UK can either deal with the NIP, or it can deal with the consequences of breaking the Withdrawal Agreement. And what the EU will do will be the least of their worries. It's what's going to happen in Northern Ireland if the political settlement falls apart because a land border is set up. Of course, the UK government is self serving, amoral and irresponsible enough to break the treaty anyway. Making any further concessions to or deals with such people is pointless. First legal action (which they'll refuse to comply with) and then suspension of the treaties and sanctions."

There's an old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times." Sadly, we are.

Regards,

Arturo

 

[fredk]

I dunno what 'Reddit' is.

But so far its been the Eu breaking the rules which were agreed. Assurances nothing would hamper drugs supply; the Eu blocked supplies of Astra Covid Vaccines back in January. They have imposed regs on the transportation of horses; a judge had to over-rule the suddenly imposed regs which would have led to the deaths of horses coming from GB. Eu imposed regs on 'soil' imported into N.I. Farmers and building contractors could not bring their machinery back from Scotland if there was so much as a speck of dirt on them - I do not exaggerate. One farmer who owns land in N.I. and Scotland could not bring some of his machinery back, it was stopped by customs 'in case' there was 'soil' on it. N.I. produces a lot of meat, it is sent over to GB for further processing, eg made into oven-ready meals, pies etc, but from this weekend the shops cannot bring that produce back over! And there is so much more which is known on the local scene and not reported by papers. Eg, petrol stations ran out of diesel fuel for a period of 5 days. The main fuel suppliers had problems with some of the new Eu regs (some of those 800 which have been applied in the last few weeks)

It was the Eu which demanded the Irish Sea Border.

After enquiring why my post has been late, the Royal Mail tells me all post is now going to and from GB through customs checks which is making an average delay of 5 to 6 days per item. Today I received a packet from GB posted on July 19th, (10 days) yesterday I received a packet from China posted there on July 20th. (8 days)

[Klara]

You write about problems with British customs. How exactly is the EU responsible for them being unable to cope with the work their government created for them?