From March 1, 2023, all freight forwarders, air carriers, express couriers and postal operators transporting goods to or through the European Union (EU) will be required to submit advance cargo information in the form of a summary declaration of entry (ENS) complete. , as part of the second phase of the new EU Customs pre-arrival security and safety program – Import Control System 2 (ICS2) Release 2, the European Commission has announced.
The union explained that economic operators involved in the handling, sending, dispatch and transport of freight, express or postal consignments to or through the EU by air must comply with the new requirements for prior declaration data for customs risk assessment before loading and before arrival.
These new requirements for transporting goods to or through European Union countries apply to Norway and Switzerland, the union said.
“By collecting data on all goods entering the EU prior to their loading and arrival, ICS2 supports effective risk-based customs controls while facilitating the free flow of legitimate trade across the EU’s external borders. ICS2 will simplify the movement of goods between customs offices at the first point of entry and at the final destination in the EU. For economic operators, ICS2 will streamline requests for additional information and pre-departure risk screening by customs authorities,” the commission said.
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“In addition to air carriers’ ENS filing responsibilities under the Version 2 multiple filing regime, freight forwarders, express couriers and postal operators will also be legally responsible for providing data. They must either share it with air carriers, who will then complete the ENS filing requirements, or submit the data directly to ICS2 Postal operators and express couriers, who previously reported partial information regarding inbound shipments (as part of ICS2 Phase 1 ), will now also need to coordinate with their air carrier to submit all required data.
Air transport industry players currently filing advance cargo information in the Import Control System (ICS) will need to gradually begin filing this data in ICS2 upon operational deployment of version 2.
Economic operators are also advised to prepare for version 2 in advance, in order to avoid the risk of delays and non-compliance.
To help prepare for the introduction of version 2 of ICS2, the European Commission (EC) announces that it will make available a conformance test environment from July 2022 to February 2023, in order to be able to verify the capability of the economic operator to access and exchange messages with customs authorities. via the planned ICS2 commercial interface. This conformity test is mandatory for all economic operators concerned.
Economic operators responsible for depositing ENS data with ICS2 will determine whether they have an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number. If this is not the case, they should contact the EU customs authority of their choice to obtain this number and receive assistance in preparing ICS2 version 2. They are also required to assess their business operations for EU import processing and contact their selected customs authority to log on and participate in upcoming Version 2 compliance testing.
The EU Import Control System 2 (ICS2) is a large-scale initiative to strengthen customs supervision of the movement of goods before they arrive at the EU’s external borders (air, sea, land and internal waterways ). ICS2 enables customs authorities to identify high-risk shipments that require early intervention, while facilitating legitimate trade within the customs territory of the EU, Norway and Switzerland.
The system is implemented in three versions. After successfully completing version 1 covering the pre-loading process for postal and express air shipments on March 15, 2021, version 2 is the next stage of system implementation, and it will go live on March 1. March 2023. Version 3 will be implemented from March 1, 2024, requiring operators transporting goods on sea and inland waterways, roads and railways to comply with the new regulations.
The European Commission leads the operational implementation of ICS2 in close cooperation with the customs authorities of the Member States, Norway and Switzerland and industry stakeholders.
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