Customs broker

Customs broker‘s role.

The importance of customs broker‘s role on supply chain is obvious. Whenever a shipment arrives to European Union or leaves it, it must be declared at Customs. This is the moment when exporters and importers realize how much information, time and effort requires the submission of a simple customs declaration. What if the declaration is more complex or a complicated one? A professional, licensed customs broker may help you save your time and costs and possibly even provide you with suggestions for optimization and cost savings.

Customs declaration.

Whenever goods are declared to customs, there is always a declaration that needs to be prepared. Some of them are simplified and easy to be filled in, for example a declaration of a passenger carrying goods. Usually customs broker‘s services are not required for simple declaration of goods at customs as only basic information needs to be provided. However majority of the goods are being imported or exported through the cargo terminals of international airports or sea ports, which requires customs declaration to be prepared. A complex system is created for an accurate reporting, control of goods, EDI and tracking of goods moving from or into European Union. Proper rate of excise and import duties as well as VAT has to be calculated and declared. This is what a customs broker does on a daily basis.

Licensed customs broker

As declaring goods at customs is responsible operation, requiring a lot of attention to details, all the customs brokers must be trained by Customs. Companies offering customs brokerage services has to be licensed and often audited by customs authorities. Make sure to check if the company has proper knowledge, licenses and permits to represent you at customs. Whenever you are asked to issue a Power of Attorney to the customs broker of your choice you should make sure it is approved by local customs. Otherwise the importer and exporter will be held responsible for inaccurate date or a shortage in taxes or duties declared.

Customs procedures

Most of importers and exporters are used to the standard customs declarations, such as import or export. However there are more services customs broker should be able to assist you with. Those include:

• Transit procedures – for third countries’ goods being in transit through EU (T1 customs declaration), but also EU goods temporary leaving EU (T2L customs declarations).
• Temporary import/export – whenever you need to deliver your goods for repair, inspection of calibration with intent to return it to the origin.
• ATA Carnet for the shipments that travel around the world as exhibition objects, training materials or testing equipment.
• ATR Certificate for shipments to/from Turkey
• Certificate of Origin (CoC) to proof the exported goods are subject to duties preference in destination country.
• EUR1, T2LF, statistic data or even declaring data for carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM)

A2 Cargo – licensed customs broker in Lithuania

When a customs broker needs to be chosen, a detailed research of own needs, incl. those in the future, must be arranged and requirements for the customs broker must be identified. As a next step we strongly suggest to contact the potential customs broker and to check if their experience and knowledge meets your requirements. A2 Cargo is an experienced customs broker showing attention to details and providing customers with suggestion and solutions beyond a standard service level. We have handled various customs procedures for many years. The experience we’ve collected and the knowledge our customs brokers gained over all the years brought us the trust from customs authorities. We were audited by customs officers and were entrusted with Approved Shipper Status at Vilnius airport cargo terminals. This brings us upon very few customs brokers in Lithuania being able to serve you the full package of customs services at Vilnius airport.

Let’s get in contact and discuss how our customs broker can help you.