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EU Exporter Definition Change Creating Inconsistency Among Member States

The European Union’s 2018 move to change the definition of an exporter in its customs legislation is leading to different transition procedures on a country-by-country basis, creating complications for businesses, according to an Oct. 18 post from KPMG.

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Under the change, “non-EU established entities” will no longer be able to act as “exporter of records” in the EU, the post said. And although the change is not expected to be fully enforced across Europe until the deployment of the Automated Export System, some EU member states “have taken a strict interpretation and are no longer accepting non-EU established companies as exporter of record,” KPMG said. Those countries include Belgium, Italy, Romania, Germany and, beginning Dec. 1, the Netherlands.

Other member states are allowing non-EU-established companies to act as exporter of record “with an indirect customs representative,” KPMG said. “Affected organizations need to urgently assess, manage and mitigate the impact of new exporter definition on their European supply and value chains.”