Clearing UK Customs: A Guide for Businesses

 

Originally Posted On: Clearing UK Customs: A Guide for Businesses – Business News Day

 

The United Kingdom runs on trade. Nearly 700 billion dollars worth of imports entered the UK in 2019.

The high number makes it sound like the country is being flooded with goods. But that’s far from the truth. UK customs carefully controls the quantity and quality of imports that pass through borders.

What should you understand about custom clearance? What rules and bodies regulate UK customs? What steps should you take to get clearance?

Answer these questions and you can ship your goods into the UK without a fuss. Here is your quick guide.

What Is Customs Clearance?

UK customs controls the goods that enter the United Kingdom. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is the government body that controls UK customs. They can block the transportation of goods and charge for transportation.

Customs clearance is the process of passing through customs. Every country has its own clearance process, and most involve several steps. UK customs are no different.

Clearance is difficult and labor-intensive. But it preserves fair trading practices and prevents the entrance of illicit or poor-quality goods. You should follow regulations, even if they delay your internal operations.

Important Customs Rules and Bodies

There are many customs rules you should understand. Keep in mind that they are prone to change. Visit the HMRC’s website and follow recent developments on the news.

Anti-Dumping Duty

Importers must pay the anti-dumping duty to prevent them from dumping goods in the UK. It is a percentage of the cost of the imported goods.

Not all goods receive a duty. Many goods from China get one because some Chinese importers dump poor-quality products in the UK. This is the case of bicycles, kitchenware, and ceramic tiles.

Port Health

Port health authorities are bodies within local governments. They examine food, containers, and kitchenware at UK ports.

They track where food is coming from and examine local health standards. They look at the food itself and make sure it is safe to consume.

Importers must supply this information to the authorities. The authorities err on the side of caution and refuse any food they think may be unsafe.

Trading Standards

Trading Standards is a body within the HMRC. The body has several offices throughout the country, regulating customs in designated areas. Trading Standards examine goods to make sure they are of high quality.

They have broad latitude. They determine whether goods are counterfeit or if they meet proper product labeling practices.

All goods must submit to Trading Standards. But certain offices like to focus on lithium batteries, toys, and electronics.

All toys must have CE markings that show they adhere to European standards for trade. All materials in all products must contain harmless substances. One toxic material may result in denial.

Intellectual Property

All imports must follow intellectual property protections. Industrial property protections regulate products. Any product cannot infringe on someone else’s patent or trademark.

Creative works must adhere to copyright. They cannot plagiarize someone else’s content. They cannot utilize someone else’s characters without their permission.

Customs authorities are very protective of intellectual property. Even if the infringement was a genuine mistake, they will destroy the potential imports.

The First Steps for Passing Through Customs

Before you begin, you can hire someone to deal with customs on your behalf. Organizations like JS Forwarding can handle the entire process for you. If you have a big shipment that you need to import quickly, you should hire someone.

If you choose to manage the process yourself, you need to set up your business. Get an Economic Operators Registration and Identification number.

Your number should start with GB if you want to send goods into England, Wales, or Scotland. To import into Northern Island, get a number with XI.

Don’t declare your goods just yet. You may be able to go through a simplified declaration track. Do some research and check your options.

You will need to register with the government to import food, animals, and medicines. You will need a separate certificate to import these goods, alongside weapons and chemicals. You can register and get certified through the government’s website.

Double-check the rules for labeling and intellectual property. Figure out which Trading Standards office will examine your imports. Follow all of the regulations and change your goods if they violate the rules.

When Your Goods Arrive

The government requires importers of plant and animal products to choose an inspection point. This is a special location where the goods can receive close examination.

You can submit your import declaration at this stage. Importers from the EU can delay their declaration for a few months. Consider a delay if you need it.

You can then pay your anti-dumping duty and value-added tax. You should pay as soon as possible. Your goods will be held up if you don’t pay your duties.

Your goods can get held up if you lack a license or fail an inspection. You can appeal the decision. Go to the National Clearance Hub and ask for help.

How to Clear UK Customs

UK customs regulate imports into the United Kingdom. They operate with numerous rules and internal bodies.

The anti-dumping tax prevents the import of low-quality goods. Port health authorities control food at UK ports.

Trading Standards offices check for counterfeit and labeling practices. All products must adhere to intellectual property protections.

You can hire someone to handle the process for you. You must set up your business and receive a license for certain goods. You then submit your declaration and pay your taxes.

Businesses build around government regulations. Follow our coverage for more business and government guides.

Animals to be recognised as sentient beings by UK law

 Originally Posted On: Animals to be recognised as sentient beings by UK law | The Legal Journal

Sentience is often defined as the ability to perceive or feel things, but it is much more than that. It is the capacity to feel emotions, form connections and relationships and crucially, develop a personality.

For hundreds of years, scientists and philosophers have quarrelled over whether or not animals have sentience. However, the evidence now points overwhelmingly to indicate that animals are, in fact, sentient.

Now, as part of the government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare, it has introduced the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, which seeks to legally recognise the sentience of vertebrate animals. The government says that this Bill will “further the UK’s position” as a “world-leader” on animal welfare. Yet, while animal rights groups have welcomed the Bill, some argue that the government is not going far enough to ensure animals are protected from harm.

So, what exactly does the bill cover, and will it provide greater protections for animals in the UK?

Animal sentience recognised by law

In the UK, the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 makes it an offence not to take “reasonable steps” to ensure the animal you are responsible for is protected from suffering. However, the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill, launched by Animal Welfare minister Lord Goldsmith, apparently seeks to bolster this partial legal recognition of sentience.

The legislation formally recognises animals as sentient beings in domestic law for the first time. If passed, it would also see the creation of an Animal Sentience Committee of experts to “ensure cross departmental government policy considers animal sentience”. Government ministers would also be compelled to relay any recommendations made by the committee to parliament.

The Bill has been introduced in conjunction with the government’s Action Plan for Animal Welfare, which includes a ban on the exports of live animals, and explores the end of fur and foie gras imports.

This is despite the fact that the MPs previously voted 313 to 295 against transferring clause NC 30 from the Lisbon treaty into UK law back in 2017.

What does the science say?

The database of research on animal sentience is extensive. Time, and time again, researchers have proved that animals feel pain, joy, fear, pleasure, and comfort.

Research from 2015, for example, studied the physiological, behavioural and vocal indicators of emotions in goats and found “clear and reliable” indicators of “arousal and valence”. Specifically, the study revealed that when goats were isolated from their herd mates, they experienced feelings of frustration.

Meanwhile, a study in 2017 discovered that sheep have “advanced face-recognition abilities”, and are able to recognise both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Elsewhere, studies have found that even fish have personality types and that these personality types can influence their abilities and influence susceptibility to parasite infections.

Another study looked into the understanding and practice of “fairness” in Chimpanzees. It found that the primates prefer reward division with a fair distribution of bananas rather than being rewarded themselves.

In 2013, after conducting a systematic review of 2,500 papers on sentience in non-human animals, a group of scientists concluded that sentience does indeed exist.

Greater protections for animals?

Animal welfare minister Lord Goldsmith claims: “Now that we’ve left the EU, we are free to drive for the highest standards of animal welfare anywhere in the world”. However, while this Bill is a step in the right direction, the government has repeatedly failed to address and tackle the suffering endured by animals across the UK. It also seems doubtful that a government headed by a man who “loved” fox hunting in a “semi-sexual way” will be a bastion of hope for animal rights.

In the UK, 73% of animals are currently farmed in factory farms where they are subjected to horrendous and overcrowded living conditions, deprived of light and fresh air and forced into crates and cages. Animals in these farms are mutilated as standard and legal practice. Crammed into cramped spaces, birds are debeaked, and male chicks killed en masse, while lambs and piglets have their tails docked.

So, the legal recognition of animal sentience raises powerful ethical and moral questions. We know that animals are sentient and experience suffering and stress, and yet it is legal in the UK to subject them to torture, pain and eventually death. There is, of course, a significant amount of hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance here.

Many also believe that the proposed legislation does not go far enough. Claire Bass, Executive Director of Humane Society International UK and Chair of Link’s Animal Welfare Group, for example, argues that the definition of “animal” should be “expanded” beyond “only vertebrates” to include “cephalopods and decapod crustaceans”.

Elsewhere, the Animal Justice Project warned about the potentially “performative” nature of this animal welfare policy. Further to this, it outlined that these kinds of policies can “instil a sense of government action” while actually failing to enact real change. The animal rights group stated: “A system that regards any animal as a means of food, sport, entertainment or experimentation cannot be trusted to defend them”.

Dr Corey Wrenn from the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research echoed similar sentiments. She expressed that the Bill appears to be more a marketing ploy than anything else. She highlighted: “Johnson’s 10 step plan for a “sustainable” future, for instance, makes no mention of animal agriculture (and the European Union continues to deeply subsidise these industries)”. This, she called a “bizarre oversight”.

Surge Activism, an animal rights organisation, also explained that the Action Plan for Animal Welfare does not go far enough to protect animals. It said: “We claim to be a nation of animal lovers who stand against animal cruelty, and our outrage about foie gras exists because of our understanding that animals feel pain and have the capacity to suffer”.

It added that this “outrage” should not be limited to foie gras considering that “inflicting pain on animals, mutilating them and killing them” in “horrific ways” are all standard practices in the UK meat, dairy and egg industries”.

The Bill is due to have its second reading in the House of Lords (HoL) shortly.