Policy & Compliance
Two new schemes will help traders to simplify the movement of goods between Great Britain and ports such as Belfast in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland simpli fi cation developments – an overview
Two new schemes will help traders to simplify the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In addition, the UK Carrier Scheme for parcel deliveries will come into effect in the near future
historically able to benefit from the Simplified Customs Declaration Procedure, specifically Entry Into Declarant’s Records (EIDR). And it seems that some good news is on the way for those traders as we now understand that EIDR declarations will be available for moving goods to Northern Ireland. The UKIMS-EIDR scheme will soon open for registration to facilitate shipments of ‘not at risk’ goods. Further positive news is that traders already registered for EIDR will not have to register again. Registration for the scheme will be required for traders who did not have EIDR approvals previously. And last but not least, Members may be aware that goods moved via the ‘green lane’ will benefit from the submission of a simplified (reduced data set) declaration designed specifically for shipments to Northern Ireland. In order to assist the trade, the authorities are currently working on adding a new declaration format to the CDS testing environment, so that users are able to commence their training and preparation processes. The launch of the training environment is scheduled for summertime. At the time of writing this article, no specific dates or detailed guidance were available. However, BIFA will issue further updates as soon as the supporting information becomes available from the official government sources.
F ollowing the publication of the Windsor Framework in March 2023, it became clear that additional systemic and procedural implementations would be necessary to facilitate the unfettered movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As the first step of the implementation process the authorities announced the launch of two new schemes that will help traders to simplify the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The first is the United Kingdom Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS). The scheme allows traders to streamline movements of goods that are not at risk of moving to the EU. In order to be eligible to benefit from the simplified shipment corridors, the so-called green lane, The scheme was not designed with a freight forwarder in mind, but BIFA Members may want to discuss this with their clients and draw attention to it. Similarly, businesses trading food stuffs may apply and become beneficiaries of the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) in order to traders must register their businesses for the UKIMS.
streamline the documentation and procedural requirements when moving those types of products into Northern Ireland. Parcel deliveries Businesses delivering parcels to Northern Ireland were left in the dark during the first implementation stage of the new regimes. However, to assist the affected traders HMRC published support guidance on 29 February 2024, which can be viewed at www.gov.uk/government/publicati ons/moving-parcels-from-great- britain-to-northern-ireland-under- the-windsor-framework-from-30- september-2024 BIFA has now learned that a new, UK Carrier Scheme will come into effect in the near future to assist businesses offering postal and parcel delivery services. Detailed guidance will be published in the next couple of months, which will provide clarification on the registration process and eligibility criteria while outlining the procedural differences between B2B, B2C, C2B and C2C shipments. It is also worth noting that a significant number of traders were
“ The UKIMS- EIDR scheme will soon open for registration to facilitate shipments of ‘not at risk’ goods. Further positive news is that traders already registered for EIDR will not have to register again
20 | May 2024
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