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I had a quote the other day for about 600EUROS of castors from Germany and they wanted to slap a 42EURO 'customs declaration' charge on the order. I thought UK-EU agreed a FTA at the 11th hour?

That's sounding like the company charging you for their time and effort in filling out paperwork. Nothing in any agreement that stops this from happening.
 
I had a quote the other day for about 600EUROS of castors from Germany and they wanted to slap a 42EURO 'customs declaration' charge on the order. I thought UK-EU agreed a FTA at the 11th hour?

There is a FTA. The €42 isn't an import tax so is allowed.
 
When I questioned this they said it was due to Brexit. I asked if it was just an admin fee for their paperwork and they did not get back to me.

I believe that it will be additional admin due to Brexit.
 
I had a quote the other day for about 600EUROS of castors from Germany and they wanted to slap a 42EURO 'customs declaration' charge on the order. I thought UK-EU agreed a FTA at the 11th hour?

its not that simple I'm afraid
there will be no duty/tariffs, but that does not mean no import costs..... you will still be charged for clearing customs & of course VAT which now has to be checked at the borders... its all extra work. .... a whole heap of new admin to be done for both sides so we are seeing customs charges fly up.... based upon the complexity of the deal they ahve hammered out & the way HMRC wants the EU to handle VAT (i go into this abit more below) its actualy more complcated & labour intensive than WTO rules, which we knew the cost of before, what we are doiling with now is completely unknown & we are realizing the costs we realise the workload

EU companies that sell to the UK are now expected to register for VAT in the UK & complete a quarterly return & pay HMRC for sales of a certain value...or on other higher value instances expected not deduct the VAT and sell items ex vat for HMRC to collect VAT at the border.... so yet again more admin to do, which all costs.

couriers such as DPD have already added their own extra admin charges onto consignments for customs clearance (or they did until the suspended EU & UK road services last week as 50% of consignments were getting rejected at both sides of borders due to in complete or incorrect customs paperwork)

The fact is the deal happening at the last minute has thrown everyone big & small in at the deep end and as of mid last week no one knew what they were doing.... we needed a deal or no deal to be established long before the transition period was over to be able to get things sorted & systems in place.

I have suspended EU shipping for my business as we currently are still working out what its going to cost us & the issues at the border are not settling down yet.... my EU suppliers (wood, metalwork, etc) have all done the same but some of them are now considering completely stopping UK supply as the turn over for the Uk alone is not looking like its worth the workload.... i understand this ass im looking at the same quandary

my advice to anyone right now, is hold off buying anything from the EU if you can.... we need suppliers, couriers/import/export agents & the boarder teams to actualy work out what they arer doing & what it costs, at this time we are flying by the skin of our pants.
 
I had a quote the other day for about 600EUROS of castors from Germany and they wanted to slap a 42EURO 'customs declaration' charge on the order. I thought UK-EU agreed a FTA at the 11th hour?

Trade agreements and customs are separate matters.
A Free Trade Agreement is free of tariffs (at least of those goods that have been covered in the agreement). Customs on the other hand protects the market the trade agreement covers.
I think as time goes on NTBs, such as ROO, Accumulation, Quotas etc will impact more than many think.
 
or the EU collapses completely as more countries leave, just another guess.
I kind of agree with this, but I think the trigger may be currency support issues. My wife is German and we live in Germany some of the time (or at least we did when travel was not restricted). Talking to Germans and reading the German press, their patience with supporting the weak economies in the Southern and fringe areas of the EU is wearing thin. When Mrs Merkel goes, and we have new German leadership, we may see a less tolerant approach. Despite media posturing, in attitude the Germans generally are not big fans of the French and are more aligned with British attitudes.

However, it does make sense for the EU to try to keep a trading bloc together, as it gives far more leverage on a world stage.
 
Simplistically, Brexit has thrown up two immediate problems:
  • VAT payments - admin is now similar to imports from non-EU where broadly VAT is due on import (ignoring special schemes)
  • Increased paperwork needs to be paid for either by an import/export surcharge, increased price, or reduced profit
Had there been two or three months to get things sorted, there would be far fewer problems. Two or three days was quite inadequate.

Paperwork costs of (say) £50 would be trivial in the contect of a £20k order, but are a real burden on small value transactions.

Neither of these will be an issue in a year (probably much less). We will (a) get used to the new status quo, (b) the rules may change to make it less of an issue, or (c) we will simply change behaviours.

In any event, getting terribly excited and emotional about is it a complete waste of energy. We can't cancel Brexit.
 
Is it too simple to not read, or participate in, threads which you find upsetting ?

Daniel...

To not read?
Don't you mean to ignore?

Yes it would be simple to ignore, and up until now that's what I have done. But we can all reach a breaking point. This is a woodworking forum. There's room for other interesting subjects of course, but it's time to ban politics and religion; neither of which are interesting, unless one favours dissent and moaning on the site.
Thanks for your input. You comment is noted; just noted.
John
 
Is it too simple to not read, or participate in, threads which you find upsetting ?
This is a recurring theme which usually gets pointed out to members just before they flounce off in a huff
 
Yes, I wish we were still in, and no, I am not winging about it. What I do winge about is the distinct lack of promised golden upland on the horizon, and the growing realisation that those who promised the golden future have absolutely no idea what it might look like or from whence it will come. How inspiring is that? Further, insightful commentators can already see ways those at the top of the pile are getting richer, and quite quickly too, whilst the rest of us are rummaging around in the dark (and covid) trying to work out what is going on...
Personally I think that to earn the adjective "civilsed", any country should: take care of the sick, elderly, vulnerable, and give a help in hard times. This can be done without creating dependancy.
 
The EU had a VAT netting arrangement, a seller in say France could charge VAT under a common EU VAT registration and by magic sales to the UK would result in VAT ending up in our Treasury. We aren't in that club now, so the trader has to register for a UK VAT account in order to trade here. Many won't.

Even Rees-Mogg said that it could take 50 years before we see the economic benefits of Brexit. I'm really looking forward to it, I'll be 118 and my children will be retired. So too will be most of the people old enough to vote in 2016. Meanwhile we fill in forms and remove the fillings from our sandwiches.

The referendum was simplistic, it would have been possible to honour it by leaving the EU (political union) but remain in both the single market and the customs union. A small influential group within the ruling party made sure we left all 3. So:

  1. We have left the political union of the EU in line with what the people wanted.
  2. Our leaders have chosen to leave the single market, but have negotiated a tariff free trade agreement for goods.
  3. Our leaders have chosen to leave the customs union and have chosen to apply customs duties.
I accept 1 and am not complaining. Nobody voted for 2 and 3.

Back to the original post, there are practical things and extra costs to consider if you buy stuff from the EU.
 
Well I suppose it's lucky that China isn't in the EU else we'd never be able to buy a new powertool again.
 
That's sounding like the company charging you for their time and effort in filling out paperwork. Nothing in any agreement that stops this from happening.

That happens even in the united states in some cases. the least effective group as far as charging fees or even collecting customs duties in connection with the service fees is the USPS. US customs levies the fees, but the post office is responsible for collecting them. I guess they don't share money with each other because the collection rate on customs duties passed along to the USPS is about 40%.
 
Was this drivel aimed at me Robin?Are you saying if I don't know what the outcome will be on any subject I shouldn't vote for anything? That is truly nonsense. People vote with their heart all the time. Especially the young. And I should check your predictive text. There is now and theŕe is know. You know?
John

I apologise if you are getting upset, I thought it a perfectly reasonable point to make.

I was merely pointing out the contradictory nature of your argument.

You are saying: "you don't know how it's going to turn out"
Yet you voted presumably with the belief there would be benefits.
If you didn't, why vote for it?
 
I had a quote the other day for about 600EUROS of castors from Germany and they wanted to slap a 42EURO 'customs declaration' charge on the order. I thought UK-EU agreed a FTA at the 11th hour?

The consequences of leaving the Single Market as set out in the Withdrawal,Agreement in 2019 has meant serious non tariff barriers between the UK and it's largest trade partner we're always inevitable.

Non tariff barriers are a greater hindrance to trade and more costly than tariffs.

The EU has gone much further than any other trade bloc anywhere in the world to eliminate non tariff barriers.

I used to import Siberian Larch from Germany and it was literally as easy as ordering it from a company in Essex.

The European Union front loaded bureaucracy by harmonising regulations (EU red tape).....which then removed bureaucracy from businesses who could trade freely.

Brexit has achieved the strange thing of theoretically removing the red tape of harmonised regulations and standards, but does so by imposing massive red tape onto business.


Sadly the Brexit campaign has focused entirely on sovereignty and freedom (non tangible and meaningless) instead of focusing on the practical issues of customs declarations, transit documents, rules of origin (very tangible).
 
Robin.
Who said I did vote for 'It'. I might not have voted at all. I didn't vote in the election just gone. I was taken ill at the wrong time; too late to make arrangements. I was pretty sure what that result was going to be, but that doesn't indicate which way I would have voted. I believe you assumed I voted leave because I was fed up with the bickering over the result. It isn't beyond the bounds of possibility that even staunch remainers can be fed up with the problems.
No offence but I don't quite see your point in your last paragraph.
Because I can't foresee a result I should not vote? And as I said if you think I was on one side or the other from my original post that's a case of misinterpretation. I did say WE LOST not YOU LOST.
Now I've had enough bickering thank you. So just let's bury this hatchet please. My apologies too. For my short fuse.

John
 
Robin.
Who said I did vote for 'It'. I might not have voted at all.

You did.

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