As you may already know, ICS2 prescribes that new requirements will be needed for all goods transported on maritime and inland waterways, roads and railways (including postal and express consignments), to or through the 27 European Union countries, and three other countries: Northern Ireland, Norway and Switzerland. This regulation applies also to freight remaining on board.
Affected Economic Operators will have to deliver safety and security data to ICS2 through an Entry Summary Declaration (ENS). The deployment of ICS2 will happen in 3 steps:
Step 3: Road/rail carriers → deployment window: 1 April 2025 – 1 September 2025
Step 1: Maritime and inland waterways carriers → deployment window: 3 June 2024 – 4 December 2024
Step 2: House level filers (Freight Forwarders) → deployment window: 4 December 2024 – 1 April 2025
Are You Ready for Import Control System 2 (ICS2)？
The main points of the new ICS2 procedure are the following:
- Risk assessment will be completed within 24 hours of receiving the ENS in the new centralized European Customs system, Shared Trader Interface.
- Cargo can only be considered for loading at compliance load port after a successful ENS submission, which will be confirmed based on the acknowledgement received in the form of an MRN.
- The carrier is the main responsible party to lodge an ENS for the goods that will enter the Customs territory of the EU.
- Two possible ENS filing scenarios:
– Multiple filings: the customer (direct customer or freight forwarder) has the legal obligation to file house level information and will be indicated in the carrier filing as a supplementary declarant (house filer), with the submission of the Customer EORI.
– Complete filing via Carrier: the customer (direct customer or freight forwarder) will have to provide the full house filing information to the carrier, which will then submit the complete declaration to Customs.
Considering the above, during the Step 1 phase, the customer need to share the following information:
- Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) of the consignee (EU shipments only)
- EORI number of the supplementary declarant in case of multiple ENS filings
- Commodity code: 6-digit Harmonized System (HS) Code
- House Bill(s) included in the shipment: yes or no
- Full address details, including street name, number, PO Box, city, postcode and country for all involved parties
- Buyer and seller information (if these are different from the shipper and consignee, and if the goods are delivered within the EU).
