In order to clarify which customs office must ensure that the pre-arrival risk analysis is carried out on the basis of the entry summary information, the definition of ‘customs office of first entry’ in Article 1(15) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended to spell out that, where that term is used, it refers to the office responsible for the place at which the means of transport is destined to arrive even if, for any reason, the means of transport actually arrives at a different place for which a different office is responsible.

In order to clearly delimit the scope of application of the rules on the entry summary declaration covering goods in express consignments and of the formalities applicable to the import and to the export of such goods, the terms ‘express consignment’ and ‘express carrier’ should be defined.

In order to ensure a uniform application of the customs provisions based on the intrinsic value of the goods, a definition of the term ‘intrinsic value’ is needed.

In order to allow that, pursuant to Union legislation other than customs legislation, the economic operator registration and identification number (EORI) is used for identification, persons other than economic operators should be obliged to register in EORI where such registration is required by Union legislation and not only where it is required by the legislation of a Member State. Article 6 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly.

Article 86(3) of the Code sets out specials rules for calculating the amount of a customs debt where the debt is incurred for processed products resulting from the inward processing procedure. At the request of the declarant, that customs debt is determined on the basis of the tariff classification, customs value, quantity, nature and origin of the goods placed under the inward processing procedure at the time of acceptance of the customs declaration relating to those goods. Article 76 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 lays down the conditions under which Article 86(3) of the Code is to apply without a request from the declarant. In order to avoid the circumvention of anti-dumping and countervailing duties, safeguard measures and additional duties resulting from a suspension of concessions that would be applicable to goods when first placed under the inward processing procedure, the obligation to apply Article 86(3) of the Code without a request from the declarant should also cover processed products obtained from such goods placed under inward processing. Article 76 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly. A transitional period of 1 year should be granted in order to allow economic operators time to adapt to the new rules.

Articles 112 and 113 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 set out obligations for other persons than the carrier to provide particulars of the entry summary declaration as regards, respectively, transport by sea or inland waterways and transport by air. Both articles contain transitional rules suspending the obligations until the upgrade of the Import Control System, Those transitional rules should reflect the fact that the provision of the particulars of the entry summary declaration by different persons will only occur from release 2 of the new system in the case of transport by air, and from release 3 in the case of transport by sea or inland waterways. Accordingly, the obligation of persons other than the carrier to provide the particulars of the entry summary declaration should distinguish between both releases. Moreover, the rule establishing that each person is responsible for the particulars of the entry summary declaration that he or she has submitted should be deleted from Articles 112 and 113 and become a new general provision applicable to any transport mode, and not to air and sea or inland waterways alone. To the extent that the entry summary declaration waiver for postal consignments and goods below EUR 22 will progressively disappear, that provision should also include a new obligation on postal operators and express carriers to provide the particulars of the entry summary declaration to the customs office of first entry, if they have not provided those particulars to the carriers having the obligation to supplement the minimum dataset provided by the postal operators or express carriers. Articles 112 and 113 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly, and a new Article 113a should be inserted.

In order to facilitate military mobility, the EU form 302 should also serve as proof of the customs status of Union goods. Article 127 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly.

Article 128d of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out the conditions for granting the authorization to draw up the shipping company’s manifest after departure. Those conditions should continue to apply as long as that authorization can be granted, regardless of whether or not the UCC Customs Decision System has been deployed. The reference to the UCC Customs Decision System should, therefore, be deleted. Article 128d of Delegated Regulation EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

Article 141 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 lists certain acts that are to be deemed customs declarations for goods referred to in Articles 138(a) to (d), 139 and 140(1) of that Regulation. The formalities to declare, both for import and for export, organs and other human or animal tissue or human blood suitable for permanent grafting, implantation or transfusion in case of emergency should be as limited as possible in order not to delay their release through cumbersome customs formalities at the border and to ensure their timely usage. Such organs, tissue or blood should therefore be allowed to be declared by any of the acts listed in Article 141 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446. Articles 138, 140 and 141 of that Delegated Regulation should therefore be amended accordingly.

In order to further simplify the movement of goods moved or used in the context of military activities, the presentation to customs of a NATO form 302 or of an EU form 302 should be considered as a customs declaration for release for free circulation with import duty relief as returned goods, for temporary admission, for export or re-export, or for transit. In the absence of an electronic system for the submission of a NATO form 302 or of an EU form 302 to customs, it is also appropriate to allow for the submission of those forms by means other than electronic data-processing techniques. Articles 138 to 142 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly.

Due to the growth in e-commerce, the number of low value consignments exported from the Union is increasing. Postal operators and express carriers play an important part in those exports. Whilst postal consignments can be declared for export by their exit from the customs territory of the Union in accordance with Article 141(4) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, other commercial goods not exceeding EUR 1 000 in value and 1 000 kg in weight are to be declared for export orally pursuant to Article 137(1)(b) of that Regulation. Since the oral declaration is to be made at the customs office competent for the place of exit, this facilitation does not fit with the business model of express carriers that is based on a single transport contract type facilitation. In case a single transport contract is used, all the exit formalities, including the formal closing of the export movement, can be completed at an inland customs office so that the customs office competent for the place of exit may only request to examine the goods on an ad hoc basis. The information about the exit of the goods is available in the express carrier’s records and may be verified by the customs authorities in the framework of post-audit controls. In order to enable the smooth export clearance of low value consignments by express carriers and thus avoid bottlenecks at border customs offices, those consignments should be allowed to be declared by any act listed in Article 141 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446. Articles 140 and 141 of that Regulation should be amended accordingly.

Article 141 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should also be amended to clarify that means of transport benefitting from total relief from import duty can be declared for temporary admission by the sole act of the goods crossing the frontier of the customs territory of the Union in any of the situations listed in point d) of paragraph 1 of that Article. The same applies for means of transport that are to be released for free circulation as returned goods according to Article 203 of the Code. Such clarification is needed for the sake of legal certainty.

Article 142 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 lists certain goods that may not be declared orally or in accordance with Article 141 of that Regulation, such as goods subject to an application for the repayment of duty or other charges. As of the entry into force of the new value added tax (VAT) rules for distance sales laid down in Council Directive (EU) 2017/2455, VAT will be due for all goods imported to the Union, regardless of their value. Consequently, if such goods are returned, the declarant is to ask for the repayment of the VAT charged upon the release for free circulation of the goods. In such cases, the declarant will need to provide evidence that the goods left the customs territory of the Union. In order to keep the administrative burden at a reasonable level for low value consignments, re-export of such consignments should be allowed by any other act in accordance with Article 141 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, even if an application for the repayment of the VAT has been submitted. Therefore, Article 142 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

Article 144 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out rules for customs declaration for goods in postal consignments. Those rules should reflect the changes in the declaration of such goods as of the entry into force of the relevant provisions of Directive (EU) 2017/2455. The rule setting out who is to be considered as debtor and declarant in the declaration of postal consignments by presentation should be deleted because from 1 January 2021 goods in postal consignments not exceeding EUR 150 are to be declared by means of an electronic customs declaration. In that declaration, the debtor and the declarant are to be clearly indicated. A transitional measure should be provided for the declaration of goods in postal consignments with a value of between EUR 150 and EUR 1000 in the Member States that have not yet updated their National Import Systems in accordance with the Code. The possibility to declare for release for free circulation those goods by presentation accompanied by declaration CN22 or CN23 until the end of the period to update the National Import Systems, that is until the end of 2022, should be maintained since the Member States are not obliged to implement the different datasets for electronic declarations until the end of that period. Article 144 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly.

Article 146 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out the time limits for lodging the supplementary declaration referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 167(1) of the Code. Those rules should connect in a clearer manner the customs authorities’ deadlines for entering the amount of import or export duty in the accounts in accordance with Article 105(1) of the Code and the time limits for the declarants to lodge the different types of supplementary declaration. Accordingly, it should be clarified that supplementary declarations covering a single simplified declaration and giving rise to a single entry in the accounts in accordance with the first subparagraph of Article 105(1) of the Code are supplementary declarations of a general nature. Supplementary declarations of a general nature should be lodged within ten days of the release of the goods. It should further be clarified that supplementary declarations of a periodic or recapitulative nature cover one or several simplified declarations by the same declarant during a fixed period and give rise to a single entry for a global amount of import duty in accordance with the second subparagraph of Article 105(1) of the Code. Those declarations should be lodged within ten days following the end of the period that they cover.

In order to better adapt the current rules to the needs of economic operators, customs authorities should be allowed to provide declarants with a longer time limit to lodge the supplementary declaration and to obtain the relevant supporting documents where the lodging of the customs declaration cannot lead to the incurrence of a customs debt. The longer time limit should be up to 120 days from the release of the goods in the case of supplementary declarations of a general nature. In addition, the time limit may be up to two years, in exceptional and duly justified circumstances, where the reasons for allowing a longer time limit are related to the customs value of the goods. Article 146 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 and Article 147 of that Regulation, which sets out the time limit for the declarant to be in possession of the supporting documents in the case of supplementary declarations, should therefore be amended accordingly.

Article 163 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 establishes the cases in which a customs declaration is to be considered as an application for an authorisation for a special procedure other than transit. That provision should also include the destruction of consignments with a value of EUR 150 000 or less in order to facilitate the customs formalities for economic operators in such cases. The destruction of consignments should be possible without the use of the Customs Decision System so that the customs authorities can take a decision on the application at the time when goods to be destroyed are declared for the customs procedure. In addition, sensitive goods listed in Annex 71-02 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be excluded from the above-mentioned facilitation, unless they are to be destroyed and the value of the consignment does not exceed EUR 150 000. Article 163 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly.

Article 163(2)(g) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 establishes that a customs declaration may not be considered as an application for an authorisation for a special procedure other than transit where Article 167(1)(f) of that Delegated Regulation applies. That provision refers to the processing of sensitive goods, which are already excluded from the scope of Article 163(1)(c) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446. In order to avoid this repetition, Article 163(2)(g) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be deleted.

Article 166(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out that the condition for granting an authorisation for a processing procedure in Article 211(4)(b) of the Code, namely that the procedure would not adversely affect the essential interests of Union producers (the economic conditions), does not apply to authorisations for inward processing except in certain cases, including applications covering goods subject to measures such as anti-dumping or countervailing duties. Such applications should however be excluded from the examination of the economic conditions, as those duties are meant to protect the essential interests of Union producers. Moreover, the examination of the economic conditions will no longer be needed in such cases since Article 76 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 as amended by this Regulation provides for an automatic application of the anti-dumping and countervailing duties to the goods placed under inward processing when the procedure is discharged. Article 166(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

Article 168 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 concerns the calculation of the amount of import duty in certain cases of inward processing. That provision is however redundant, due to the amendments to Articles 76 and 166 of that Delegated Regulation. According to those amendments, the calculation of import duty is made in accordance with Article 86(3) of the Code in the cases mentioned in Article 168 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446. In addition, if the goods are subject to agricultural or commercial policy measures the economic conditions have to be examined according to Article 166 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 as amended by this Regulation. Article 168 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be deleted.

Article 177 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out rules concerning accounting segregation where Union goods are stored together with non-Union goods in a storage facility for customs warehousing. In order to avoid any possible misuse of those rules, the storage of Union and non-Union goods together in a storage facility for customs warehousing (common storage) should only be allowed where the goods have the same CN code, commercial quality and technical characteristics. Goods subject to measures such as anti-dumping or countervailing duties should not be allowed to be placed in common storage, unless they have become Union goods after having been subjected to the relevant anti-dumping or countervailing duties. Article 177 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

In order to simplify the use of the temporary admission procedure in international maritime traffic, in frontier zones and with respect to certain pedagogical, scientific and technical equipment, the applicant and the holder of the temporary admission procedure should exceptionally be allowed to be established inside the customs territory of the Union, and should not have to be established outside that territory as required in Article 250(2)(c) of the Code. Articles 220, 224, 227, 229 and 230 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

Where military goods are declared for temporary admission, they should benefit from total relief of import duty and the period for discharge should be fixed at 24 months, with the possibility of an extension. A new Article 235a should therefore be inserted in Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 and Article 237 of that Regulation should be amended accordingly.

Article 245(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out exceptions from the requirement to lodge a pre-departure declaration for goods leaving certain Union territories outside the customs territory of the Union. In order to facilitate military mobility, this exception should be extended to goods moved under cover of a NATO form 302 or an EU form 302. In addition, following the inclusion of Campione d’Italia and the Italian waters of Lake Lugano into the customs territory of the Union, that exception should no longer refer to Campione d’Italia and the Italian waters of Lake Lugano. Points (i) and (p) of Article 245(1) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should therefore be amended accordingly.

Article 248 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended to clarify that the customs office of export must invalidate the export declaration and must invalidate the relevant certification of exit of goods, where the customs office of exit has informed that a transport operation that should have terminated outside the customs territory of the Union will terminate inside.

Annex 71-03 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 provides a list of the usual forms of handling for the purposes of goods placed under a processing procedure pursuant to Article 220 of the Code. In order to avoid the misuse of usual forms of handling to obtain unjustified duty advantages, that Annex should be amended accordingly.

Point 7 of Annex 71-04 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 sets out the conditions under which recourse to the use of equivalence is permitted under the inward processing arrangements with regard to milk and milk products. The conditions concern the weight of the different components in such products, namely dry matter, fat matter and protein. In order to simplify those provisions, so that milk and milk products are subject to the general rules on equivalence established in third subparagraph of Article 223(1) of the Code, Annex 71-04 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

Annex 71-05 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 lists the data elements that are to be made available for the standardised exchange of information between customs authorities in the context of processing procedures. It should be clarified that some data elements can be expressed in measurement units other than kilograms and in currencies other than the euro because, unlike other provisions on data elements to be provided by the economic operators, Articles 176, 181 and Annex 71-05 do not explicitly mention this possibility. It should also be possible for a customs declaration to be considered as an application for an authorisation for inward or outward processing as allowed in Article 163 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446. Finally, a new data element should be added in Section B regarding the date on which the customs debt was incurred or on which potential commercial policy measures applied, as this is a relevant data element to be exchanged by the customs authorities when using the INF system. Annex 71-05 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be amended accordingly.

Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341 should also be amended to reflect certain changes to other Union legislation. First, the introduction of the Member States’ reporting obligation on progress with the electronic systems in Article 278a of the Code is stricter than the reporting obligation set out in Article 56(2) of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341 and the latter should therefore be deleted. Second, Annex 1 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341, which sets out the common data requirements for declarations, notifications and proof of Union status that apply until the electronic systems of the Code are deployed, should reflect the Commission Decision on the updated Work Programme to deploy the ICS2 system in three releases. That Annex should exclusively refer to the Annexes to that Delegated Regulation providing data requirements for the transition period but should not refer to Annex B to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, as this does not apply during the transition. Finally, after the inclusion of the definition of express consignment and express carrier in Article 1 of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446, the definition of express consignment in Annex 9 to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/341 should be deleted to avoid confusion.

Article 128a of Delegated Regulation (EU) 2015/2446 should be corrected to clarify the instructions on the stamp and signature of certain proofs of union status. First, some instructions are duplicated and therefore one set of such instructions should be deleted. Second, the reference to a special stamp described in Part II, Chapter II of Annex 72-04 to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/2447 should be added. Third, authorized issuers and authorized consignors are two distinct authorizations and the provision wrongly refers to authorized consignors in the context of authorizations for issuance of the proof. The provision should refer to ‘authorized issuer’ instead of ‘authorized consignor’, in all languages.

The possibility to declare organs and other human or animal tissue or human blood suitable for permanent grafting, implantation or transfusion, in case of emergency by any other act should retroactively apply from 15 March 2020 to facilitate the import of these goods in the crisis created by the coronavirus,