HMRC has confirmed that businesses moving goods by road or rail from Great Britain (GB) to Northern Ireland (NI) can keep using the legacy Import Control System Northern Ireland (ICSNI) for Entry Summary Declarations (ENS) until 31 December 2025 if they need more time to migrate to ICS2. Traders that are already on ICS2 should [...]
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On 27 June 2025, EU finance ministers agreed a common position on the most ambitious overhaul of the Union Customs Code (UCC) in a generation. For traders, platforms, logistics companies and customs brokers, this is not just another legislative waypoint: it is the blueprint for how goods data will be collected, assessed, and cleared across [...]
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Introduction From heritage leather goods and handcrafted jewellery to scarves, belts, hats, sunglasses, and tech-enabled wearables, the United Kingdom’s fashion-accessories sector enjoys strong international demand. Turning that demand into dependable revenue requires more than design excellence. Exporters must synchronise three disciplines: product-compliance (materials, labelling, market notifications), logistics integrity (dangerous-goods and packaging controls), and precise border [...]
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Introduction From designer sofas and handcrafted tables to lighting, textiles, glassware and ceramics, furniture and home goods arrive in the United Kingdom under close fiscal and regulatory scrutiny. To move consignments efficiently you must build a coherent pathway that starts with accurate classification and origin, continues through duty and VAT calculations, and culminates in an [...]
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What’s new: The EU’s Import Control System 2 (ICS2) moves fully into road and rail. From 1 September 2025, several Member States will require a complete Entry Summary Declaration (ENS) in ICS2 for all goods entering by truck or train—including postal consignments—with no national derogation in place. If you’re a UK shipper, haulier, forwarder or [...]
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For nearly a decade, the United States’ $800 de minimis threshold acted as a high-speed lane for cross-border e-commerce. If an individual shipment to an American buyer was valued at $800 or less, it typically cleared under simplified procedures without duty. That system is now over. Following a 2025 policy shift, all UK-to-US consignments—regardless of [...]
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Cross-border trade is no longer just about containers, pallets, and stamps. Increasingly, what moves is data—software updates instead of discs, electronic bills of lading instead of paper originals, signed PDFs instead of wet-ink contracts. Over 2024–2025, negotiators at the World Trade Organization (WTO) converged on a stabilised text for a new e-commerce agreement that many [...]
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Introduction Cosmetics exports—from skincare and colour cosmetics to fragrances and aerosols—offer compelling growth for UK brands. Yet the path to a new market runs through a dense mesh of product-safety rules, market-specific registrations, exacting labelling norms, and precise border formalities. Treat these requirements as a single, end-to-end process—beginning with formula review and ending with a [...]
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