Organisations such as HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Payments Agency have an interest in UK frontier or border controls. Many products crossing the UK frontier will be subject to some types of licensing and control - some products may be prohibited from entering at all.

One of a freight forwarder's main functions is to arrange customs clearance of goods crossing the frontier. The freight forwarder can do this themselves, or subcontract it to a company that specialises in customs broking.

In order to provide customs services, the freight forwarder needs to have sufficient funds available to handle the bonds and guarantees required for duty and taxes payments. They also need specific software that can communicate with the HMRC central computer. Nearly all the HMRC functions are now electronic, and special software for reporting and payments is necessary.

The UK Trade Tariff

The 'Integrated Tariff of the United Kingdom' sets out the duties and measures affecting the import, export, and transit of goods to and from the UK and consolidates UK-specific data with the European Union TARIC data.

( linda )10 Nov,2011

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