News / EC plan to cut import storage allowance falters after shipping community protest

© Lee Avison

European shipping stakeholders are up in arms over a proposal to limit temporary storage at EU ports to three days – a significant reduction from the current 90-day allowance. 

Non-EU goods imported into the union are held in temporary storage, controlled by Customs, from the moment they arrive until they are placed under a customs procedure or re-exported, currently this must happen within 90 days.

If this is not done, customs authorities may “take any necessary measures to regularise the situation”, which could include confiscation and sale, or destruction, of the goods. 

However, in its May 2023 customs reform proposal, the EC suggested the temporary storage period be reduced to three days, or in the case of an authorised consignee, six days. This is currently being discussed by the European Parliament. 

The proposal has been met by uproar from the European shipping community, which has dubbed the three-day plan “anti-competitive”.  

The European Sea Ports Organisation (ESPO) said: “A shortened temporary storage period would leave an unacceptable amount of goods without an adequate customs procedure… For European ports, a shortening of the current temporary storage period is neither acceptable nor practicable.” 

Port of Antwerp-Bruges told The Loadstar: “Reducing temporary storage from 90 to three days is to the detriment of European ports and reduces our competitiveness as international hubs for transhipment, making us more expensive and less attractive to European imports and exports. By eliminating transhipment volumes, there will be fewer sailings to fewer destinations, resulting in higher costs. 

“In addition, administrative burdens will be imposed on parties that do not have the necessary data for this and, by shortening from 90 to three days, for many shipments, including imports to Europe, an administrative step is added.” 

CLECAT (the European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services) said that while a 90-day allowance was “generous”, and in many cases not utilised in full, it felt three days was too significant a reduction.  

It told The Loadstar: “CLECAT strongly disputes that three to six days after arrival is sufficient for any type of EO to guarantee the availability of sufficient amount of information for a follow up customs procedure. 

In the customs reform proposal, the commission also stated that for longer storage, placing goods under the customs warehousing procedure would be required. 

However, CLECAT pointed out that customs warehousing in its current form was not an alternative for temporary storage. It said: “The commission seems to underestimate that the requirement for an authorisation and the management of a customs warehouse are much more complex than for temporary storage.” 

Good news for European shippers, however, is that the reaction to the three-day plan has been such that it seems unlikely it will get the green light from the EP, said CLECAT. 

“This amendment is, in a way, low-hanging fruit, as all stakeholders agree over it and the commission has also recognised that this part of its proposal may have to be revised,” it said.