For EU Exports to the UK, Transitory Period Installed Regarding the Supplier’s Declarations

Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/2254 has been published in the EU Official Journal, allowing EU exporters to the UK to make out statements on origin on the basis of a supplier’s declarations to be provided by the supplier at a subsequent date. Thus, an EU exporter may, until 31 December 2021, make out statements on origin for exports to the UK on the basis of a supplier’s declarations to be provided by the supplier subsequently, on condition that by 1 January 2022 the exporter has the supplier’s declarations in his or her possession.

Although the UK has left the EU single market and customs union, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) between the EU and the UK, signed on 30 of December 2020, sets out their future relationship. One of the aspects of the TCA is that both parties agreed that they will eliminate customs duties on all goods having the preferential origin of either party. Therefore, companies exporting from the EU to the UK now need to provide proof that their goods have EU-originating status, in order to benefit from preferential tariff measures. The origin of goods is determined by a statement on origin, based on the principle that a supplier provides the exporter with the necessary information. 

The European Commission acknowledges the difficulties that exporters might have to draft these statements on origin, given the fact that exporters are dependent on the declarations of their suppliers. Therefore, the EU has installed a transitory period which allows exporters to make out statements on origin based on a supplier’s declarations even if they do not have all the relevant supplier’s declarations at the time of making out the statement on origin. At the end of the transitory period for this purpose, all the supplier’s declarations must be provided to the exporter.

The TCA requires the exporter of a product to make out a statement on origin based on information demonstrating the origin of the product, including information on the originating status of materials used in its production. The exporter is responsible for the correctness of the statement on origin and the information provided therein.

The EU had already established procedural rules to facilitate the establishment of the preferential origin of goods in the Union; these rules will apply in the same way to the TCA. The general rule states that where a supplier provides the exporter with the information necessary to determine the originating status of goods for the purposes of the provisions governing preferential trade between the Union and certain countries or territories (preferential originating status), the supplier must do so by means of a supplier’s declaration. If a supplier, however, regularly supplies an exporter with consignments and the originating status of the goods of all those consignments is expected to be the same, that supplier may provide a single declaration covering subsequent consignments of such goods.

Give the short period of time between the publication of the TCA and the date on which it became applicable, the Commission recognises that it would be difficult for some suppliers to provide all relevant declarations in time for exporters to make out the statements on origin based on them. Therefore, the European Commission has adopted Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/2254, setting out the transitory rules. This Regulation allows exporters, until 31 December 2021, to make out statements on origin based on the supplier’s declarations even if they do not have all the relevant supplier’s declarations at the time of making out the statement on origin. This is allowed on condition that by 1 January 2022 the exporter has the supplier’s declarations in his or her possession. If the exporter does not have those supplier’s declarations by then, the exporter shall inform the importer on 31 January 2022 at the latest.

To sum up, despite the UK’s departure from the EU single market and customs union, traders can still ship EU originating products to the UK without paying any customs duties, as long as the exporter gives proof of this EU origin using a statement on origin. A statement on origin is based on declarations given by the supplier to the exporter; however, given the short period between the publication of the TCA and its entry into force this might prove unduly burdensome, since suppliers did not have to deliver such declarations, for EU-27 shipments to the UK, before. Therefore, pursuant to new Commission Regulation (EU) 2020/2254, the EU allows exporters to already make out statements on origin for export to the UK, on condition that by 1 January 2022 the exporter has the supplier’s declarations in his possession.