FedEx requiring EORI for non-economic operators in EU?

[2JP]

Recent FedEx announcement:

FedEx | System Down

This implies that come March, all EU recipients, even private individuals purchasing goods for private consumption (i.e. non-economic operators) will need an EU EORI number. Note EORI stands for Economic Operators Registration and Identification.

It means that private individuals in EU will not be able to receive FedEx packages without some other entity (with an EORI) acting as the named importer.

Anybody know any better or received any clarification from FedEx on this? Is this just poorly worded FedEx marketing material or will they be demanding an EORI for every package to a private consumer?

 

[Martin Global]

in march 2023 those rules apply to air shipments. I imagine that importers EORI number will be required. Importer as in seller of the goods meaning, yours. If you dropship from outside of the EU to EU, your EORI number (which is still required from you at this moment) should be enough. Consumers are not importers - provider of purchased goods is. That is my understanding. I'd put it on account of poor wording of the statement.

 

[2JP]

in march 2023 those rules apply to air shipments. I imagine that importers EORI number will be required. Importer as in seller of the goods meaning, yours. If you dropship from outside of the EU to EU, your EORI number (which is still required from you at this moment) should be enough. Consumers are not importers - provider of purchased goods is. That is my understanding. I'd put it on account of poor wording of the statement.

Do be an importer in the EU, doesn't one need an EU EORI?

The seller is not the importer under all incoterms. We do not dropship. We manufacture and export (incoterm DAP), usually to economic operators unless domestic. Our customer is the importer into EU. We have not been approached by a private consumer for business since Brexit.

FedEx international shipping services includes customs brokerage, also known as FedEx Broker-Inclusive. Fast parcel carriers (e.g. DHL/FedEx) who make the declarations on behalf of the exporter and importer (a Power of Attorney form is needed for the courier to do this on behalf of the importer). The handling of such customs declarations is one of the main reasons for using such a courier.

So the question is: can a non-economic operator be an importer of goods for personal private use? Perhaps not but I cannot find a straight answer.

 

[Martin Global]

Do be an importer in the EU, doesn't one need an EU EORI?

The seller is not the importer under all incoterms. We do not dropship. We manufacture and export (incoterm DAP), usually to economic operators unless domestic. Our customer is the importer into EU. We have not been approached by a private consumer for business since Brexit.

FedEx international shipping services includes customs brokerage, also known as FedEx Broker-Inclusive. Fast parcel carriers (e.g. DHL/FedEx) who make the declarations on behalf of the exporter and importer (a Power of Attorney form is needed for the courier to do this on behalf of the importer). The handling of such customs declarations is one of the main reasons for using such a courier.

So the question is: can a non-economic operator be an importer of goods for personal private use? Perhaps not but I cannot find a straight answer.

Here's a quore from gov.uk :
You do not need an EORI number if you’re moving goods that are both:

• not controlled goods
• for personal use only

Also found this on Fedex website:
Traders from outside the EU who ship to an EU country don't need their own EORI number, but they do need to provide their recipient or importer's EORI number on the commercial invoice. If you, the sender, will act as the importer at customs in the destination country (for example, when shipping goods under DDP Incoterms®), then you'll need your own EORI number. You only need to register for it once, in the country where the first import occurs.

Whenever you’re shipping to the EU, make sure you have the EORI number of your recipient or importer. If you're shipping out of an EU country, you'll also need to provide your own EORI number on the commercial invoice.

Considering above information I'd say that non-economic operator can't be an importer for goods. Customer is not an importer. In this particular situation sender figures as an importer and needs to provide their EORI number at customs. They used DDP as an example but I think it applies to DAP as well

 

[Martin Global]

Do be an importer in the EU, doesn't one need an EU EORI?

The seller is not the importer under all incoterms. We do not dropship. We manufacture and export (incoterm DAP), usually to economic operators unless domestic. Our customer is the importer into EU. We have not been approached by a private consumer for business since Brexit.

FedEx international shipping services includes customs brokerage, also known as FedEx Broker-Inclusive. Fast parcel carriers (e.g. DHL/FedEx) who make the declarations on behalf of the exporter and importer (a Power of Attorney form is needed for the courier to do this on behalf of the importer). The handling of such customs declarations is one of the main reasons for using such a courier.

So the question is: can a non-economic operator be an importer of goods for personal private use? Perhaps not but I cannot find a straight answer.

Also, let me know if you're happy with Fedex in this regard. We do same thing for our clients but have wider variety of options as we are not limited to one courier.

 

[2JP]

Thank you for your view, Martin. Contrary to the statement in your last paragraph, the customer can be the importer if they have an EORI (e.g. B2B and DAP). And then a fast parcel operator like FedEx will do the customs declaration work on their behalf (if the customer has not done so already, they normally fill in a Power of Attorney form, or some such, depending on country, the first time). My understanding is that a sender can only be the importer if they have an EU EORI and that to get an EU EORI, you need some EU presence.

We have taken the simplest approach and have adopted the policy of refusing orders from the EU if the potential customer does not have an EORI or is unwilling to get one (individuals can apply for an EORI; they do not have to be a 'business' though getting an EORI, of course, then makes them an economic operator).

Since my post, while delving through the EU legislation I did actually find some mention that a non-economic operator (no EORI) is able to import for personal use if they only imported 'occasionally'. It may be out of date, though; I did not pursue too deeply.

Regardless of this possible exception, it looks like FedEx has adopted the policy of importer EORI must be provided for every shipment into EU.

 

[Martin Global]

Thank you for your view, Martin. Contrary to the statement in your last paragraph, the customer can be the importer if they have an EORI (e.g. B2B and DAP).

Of course you are right on this. I should've clarified that by Custmoer I mean individual reciever (non-B2B) who just ordered something for personal use. I wonder what's the feedback from your customers on getting EORI. I think it could be avoided, probably not with Fedex though as they are very clear in their policy. We should also keep in mind that at this time, it applies only to air shipment. I wonder if it will translate unchanged to other forms of transportation.

 

[2JP]

Also, let me know if you're happy with Fedex in this regard. We do same thing for our clients but have wider variety of options as we are not limited to one courier.

Thanks, Martin. I expect you supply a good service and we shall keep that in mind. Are we happy with FedEx? Goes up and down. We have learnt a lot over the years but, as I am sure you are well aware, they keep changing their customer interaction interfaces and, every time, it gets a little worse from our perspective.

They appear to have stopped messing with their new online shipping interface but, for us, it is nowhere near as functionally useful as the previous version, mostly due to the options appearing and disappearing. We still use the previous version as it is the only way to enter freight or insurance as separate charges to a customer if you decide to be lazy and use the FedEx generated commercial invoice. Not that what happens is very predictable given that different countries have differing views on taxing such charges.

Since arranging for export SADs to be automatically emailed to us (of course, FedEx should do this by default for their UK business customers who need proof of export for HMRC - it used to be the default but not anymore), we have been able to put a bit of flesh on the bone of why our shipments get held up sometimes at US customs. It appears to have been mostly due to incompetent FedEx staff not copying the commercial invoice item declaration details onto the SAD. Unfathomably, they also do not appear to know the difference between gross and net weight but we stopped flogging that dead horse pretty quickly as it doesn't seem to cause hold ups. It does make me wonder how fictional national import/export statistics are though.

There is also the added complication of HS numbers differing between countries. Aren't international 'standards' great? Very harmonious.

For the first time since COVID, we actually had FedEx UK to USA shipments arrive the next day last week. Notably, the SAD documents reasonably accurately reflected the description from the commercial invoice. For the US, we also learnt early to include documents aimed at the FDA and any other compliance that US customs officials might decide to flex their muscle over (it is so complex, I am not really surprised it is misinterpreted).

 

[2JP]

I wonder what's the feedback from your customers on getting EORI. I think it could be avoided, probably not with Fedex though as they are very clear in their policy. We should also keep in mind that at this time, it applies only to air shipment. I wonder if it will translate unchanged to other forms of transportation.

We are highly specialist, largely making to order, so there is usually a long delay between customer order and dispatch (weeks/months). This should make it relatively easy for someone who is probably on the verge of being a business anyway to get an EORI in that time. We are nearly completely B2B so it will be very rare for us. We only ever deliver via air internationally as goods are, essentially, perishable and need to be delivered just in time.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

 

[Deleted member 351022]

There is also the added complication of HS numbers differing between countries. Aren't international 'standards' great? Very harmonious.

The HS codes are only harmonised at the 6 digit level globally. Each country can then choose to break the description down further and add as many extra digits after the first 6 they want. The USA tends to want a lot more detail and uses 10 digits. Unfortunately as you have found those 10 digits don’t align to the UK 10 digits.

we have been able to put a bit of flesh on the bone of why our shipments get held up sometimes at US customs. It appears to have been mostly due to incompetent FedEx staff not copying the commercial invoice item declaration details onto the SAD. Unfathomably, they also do not appear to know the difference between gross and net weight but we stopped flogging that dead horse pretty quickly as it doesn't seem to cause hold ups. It does make me wonder how fictional national import/export statistics are though.

.

The details entered on the SAD uk export document shouldn’t have any bearing on how things are declared in the USA . The UK export declaration is only visible to HMRC not the US customs authorities.
The problems likely lie with the FedEx staff in the US who make the import declaration into the USA who either are not great at what they do or haven’t been given enough information either by FedEx UK or the info they have from either the exporter or importer isn’t sufficient for US requirements.

 

[2JP]

The details entered on the SAD uk export document shouldn’t have any bearing on how things are declared in the USA . The UK export declaration is only visible to HMRC not the US customs authorities.
The problems likely lie with the FedEx staff in the US who make the import declaration into the USA who either are not great at what they do or haven’t been given enough information either by FedEx UK or the info they have from either the exporter or importer isn’t sufficient for US requirements.

Thanks. I guess it was a coincidence then. Do you know if FedEx UK passes any information to FedEx USA that US customs might assess, other than the ETD submitted by the shipper? Certainly the FedEx UK online shipping tool asks for commercial invoice goods details even when the shipper writes and submits their own commercial invoice, which seems strange to me. What happens to that data?

 

[Deleted member 351022]

The commercial invoice details entered on the online tool will usually be passed on. The fast parcel operators including FedEx are all about getting the packages through customs and delivered as quickly as possible so they all use their automated systems as their primary source of information.
Are you also submitting your own commercial invoice electronically to FedEx?

 

[2JP]

For EU we do as we put the statement on origin on our commercial invoice to save having to produce another document and then reference the two to each other as I believe would otherwise be required. For USA, we usually use the FedEx generated commercial invoice and add a couple of compliance documents with the ETD. It used to work well (the odd nightmare here and there) and I think courier / customs staffing is settling down again now we are mostly over COVID, and performance appears to be coming back.