The Union Customs Code (UCC), which was adopted on October 9, 2013, together with the Delegating and Implementing Acts both adopted in December 2015, will become effective on May 1, 2016.

The goal of the UCC and its supplementing Acts seek to streamline customs legislation and procedures in the European Union (EU), offer greater legal certainty to businesses, increase the uniform application of legislation by customs administrations across the EU, simplify customs rules and procedures in an electronic communications environment, and create benefits for compliant and trustworthy economic operators.

The UCC introduces several changes to current legal requirements.  These changes will become effective over the next four years as Member States customs administrations are able to implement the supporting Information Technology Systems.  The most notable changes to current practice that could influence traders, include the following:

• Most customs declarations and applications will be dealt with electronically
• The introduction of mandatory guarantees
• The removal of the “first sale” for export as a method of determining the transaction value
• The consolidation of the customs procedures with economic impact into four categories (Processing, Storage, Specific Use and Transit) and the removal the Inward Processing Drawback procedure

For additional information on the UCC, please see the link here