Customs4trade NV (C4T), a leading customs SaaS solutions provider, has been explaining how exporting and importing manufacturers and traders can benefit from cost savings by incorporating Customs Special Procedures (SP) into their supply chain strategies.

Mechelen, Belgium 1st February, 2023

In a recent series of webinars, C4T focused on the various opportunities afforded by the use of Customs Special Procedures (SP) in many examples of manufacturing and value-added international supply chains.

Of course, since the UK left the Single Market, the relevance of British companies using SP within their customs declarations has increased to the tune of 27 additional trading partner countries. Gone are the days of seamless, customs-free trade between the UK and the EU. This is particularly significant for a number of reasons. The EU bloc is the biggest individual global trading partner for the UK, accounting for some 50% of the UK’s international trade. Moreover, its close proximity and the resulting speed and efficiency of freight transport services have for more than 30 years increasingly facilitated many integrated inbound and outbound value-added, processing and sub-manufacturing supply chains for a very large number of businesses. These are in perfect scope of SP and the inherent cost savings which can be achieved.

Against this backdrop, C4T has seen a big increase in post-Brexit enquiries over the past year or so from companies looking to take advantage of the potential cost savings offered by SP. 

Some of the most commonly used components of SP are:

• Inward Processing, whereby raw materials imported for manufacturing, processing or repair are not subject to duties
• Customs Warehousing, which exempts goods from duties and taxes until they leave the warehouse
• Outward Processing, under ‘Returned Goods Relief’ whereby goods temporarily exported for manufacturing, process or repair are not subject to duties

By way of example, polling during the webinars revealed that amongst the attendees, 53 % identified Returned Goods Relief as an important benefit, and 30% said that they’re investigating it.

‘Given the complexity of many businesses’ supply chains, with Europe and the rest of the world, and in context of the well-publicised upward pressures in operational supply chain costs, it’s become very important for organisations to ensure that they’re avoiding unnecessary duty payments,’ says Sam Blakeman, C4T’s Product Marketing Manager. ‘We’ve been happy to assist clients with the auditing of their supply chains to identify the SP opportunities where they exist, and in many cases to support them in their management of the applicable SP regimes using our cloud-based customs software tool, CAS.’

There have traditionally been barriers to companies implementing SP into their customs strategy. A lack of understanding within customs departments as to how SPs work is a case in point.  Furthermore, companies can sometimes question whether they can manage, with full compliance, the various control tasks and obligations which come with the territory.

These include such things as obtaining the necessary authorisations and guarantees, administering and controlling stock levels and overseeing all aspects of discharge periods and issuing Bills of Discharge when appropriate.

Blakeman addresses these concerns and concludes: ‘We’re happy that through a combination of our highly consultative approach and the capabilities and functionalities of our CAS software platform, we are able to support our customers in their SP journey and help them to realise the duty cost savings that they are looking for in as pain-free a way as possible’.

About Customs4trade (C4T)

C4T has developed CAS, a collaborative hub, built on the Microsoft Azure platform delivered as a service (SaaS). It is designed to manage regional and worldwide customs and trade compliance quickly and accurately, with a digital-first approach, helping customers stay ahead of the digitisation of customs processes. CAS provides customers with continual updates and feature enhancements, including the incorporation of any changes to legislation and compliance regulation—along with Azure’s signature accessibility, scalability, and security.

Forward-thinking companies are turning to C4T to help them navigate customs and trade with native-cloud software and managed services for their organisation’s highest strategic benefit.  

For more information or to contact the company, please visit www.customs4trade.com.    

C4T employs about 100 people in Mechelen, Belgium and Wigan, UK and has raised funding from European venture capital companies 83North, Hi Inov and 42CAP.

In a bid to continuously monitor and maximise security for customers and employees, C4T are pleased to announce that they have received their ISO 27001:2017 and ISO 9001:2015 certification, the internationally recognised standard for security and compliance, specifying

requirements for an organisation’s quality management system (QMS) and information security management system (ISMS). Receiving the ISO certifications demonstrates that C4T has invested in its people, processes, technology, and quality.

“We are extremely proud of this achievement and committed to maintaining the highest available security standards to protect our customers and employees. Being accredited with the ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification is a vital step in this process and further validates our commitment to good governance and information security and quality, and we look forward to continuing to serve our clients and employees with the highest security and quality standards” Rupert Spiegelberg, CEO.

ISO 9001 is a national standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system (QMS) to help businesses become more efficient to improve customer satisfaction.

ISO 27001 certification for information security and privacy best practices. 

For more information on the ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification, please visit https://brandcompliance.com/diensten/iso-27001-certificering/

About Customs4trade (C4T)

C4T has an unique team of customs experts and best-of-breed technology engineers and has developed CAS, a one-of-a-kind software solution for customs and trade compliance. Managed Customs Services have been added to this product offering, helping companies make the most of their software investment.

CAS is a collaborative hub, built on the Microsoft Azure platform and delivered as a service (SaaS). It is designed to manage regional and worldwide customs and trade compliance quickly and accurately, within one single platform. CAS provides customers with continual updates and feature enhancements, including the incorporation of any changes to legislation and compliance regulation—along with Azure’s signature accessibility, scalability, and security.

Forward-thinking companies are turning to C4T to help them navigate customs and trade with native-cloud software and managed services for their organisation’s highest strategic benefit.  

For more information or to contact the company, please visit www.customs4trade.com.    

Customs solutions provider Customs4trade NV (C4T) announces a new CEO and two key executive appointments as it strengthens its management to take advantage of accelerating growth in the UK and across Europe.

30^th November 2022, Mechelen, Belgium

Customs4trade, one of Europe’s leading SaaS platforms for customs management solutions, has strengthened its management team with the appointment of Rupert Spiegelberg as its new CEO. Rupert Spiegelberg will lead the team and is joined by Chief Revenue Officer Jo Buvens, ex Salesforce and Chief Product and Technology Officer Oliver Conze, ex SAP to drive C4T management and its digital platform CAS in a new direction to accelerate growth in 2023.

Spiegelberg succeeds Pieter Haesaert, who founded C4T together with Ilse Vermeersch as a customs consultancy in 2004 before developing the CAS platform ten years later. Founders Haesaert and Vermeersch will no longer be involved in the day-to-day operational management and strategy of C4T, but remain invested in the company as shareholders together with 83North, Hi Inov, 42CAP and 10x Group. Werner Koninckx will represent the founders on the board. Werner is chairman of 3E and DeltaQ and has extensive experience in scaling SaaS businesses.

“We are extremely proud of all the C4T’ers and our partners who have been relentlessly contributing to the progress we made at C4T the last years”, Haesaert and Vermeersch said. “We thank our clients and partners for the trust they put in our hands to service them in the complex and time critical world of customs compliance. C4T is now with CAS in a fantastic position to take advantage of all the changes in the customs world that we will see in coming years.”

Spiegelberg is a 20-year veteran of SaaS (Software as a Service) scale-up businesses in the UK, mainland Europe and the US. He is joined by Buvens as CRO, formerly Salesforce’s Regional Vice President and Country Leader for Belgium and Luxembourg, and by Oliver Conze as Chief Product and Technology Officer. Conze has spent 15 years at SAP – most recently as the German technology giant’s Chief Product Officer for Marketing Cloud.

 “C4T is leading the way in driving down costs, speeding up turnaround times for UK and European importers and exporters and simplifying the hugely complex world of online customs management,” said Spiegelberg. “In taking up the role to lead C4T’s ‘A-team’ of customs experts, I will support their tireless dedication to transform our company into a champion of the sector. We will help our customers go beyond compliance to make customs and trade a strategic component of their growth.”

C4T, whose CAS digital platform manages more than one hundred thousand customs declarations every month for major brands such as Honda, Mizuno, Agristo, and many others, and delivers to customers the benefits of the increased digitisation of the customs sector as national governments across Europe move to upgrade customs systems over the course of the next couple of years.

Notes for Editors

About Customs4trade (C4T)

C4T has developed CAS, a collaborative hub, built on the Microsoft Azure platform delivered as a service (SaaS). It is designed to manage regional and worldwide customs and trade compliance quickly and accurately, with a digital-first approach, helping customers stay ahead of the digitisation of customs processes. CAS provides customers with continual updates and feature enhancements, including the incorporation of any changes to legislation and compliance regulation—along with Azure’s signature accessibility, scalability, and security.

Forward-thinking companies are turning to C4T to help them navigate customs and trade with native-cloud software and managed services for their organisation’s highest strategic benefit.  

For more information or to contact the company, please visit www.customs4trade.com.    

C4T employs about 100 people in Mechelen, Belgium and Wigan, UK and has raised funding from European venture capital companies 83North, Hi Inov and 42CAP.

Customs solution provider C4T is urging traders to and from the Netherlands to be alert to changes in declaration procedures due to take effect on 4^th October. With the changeover from the existing AGS system to the highly automated DMS, Dutch authorities seek to accommodate importers and exporters, maintaining the country’s role as a primary EU gateway.

The Netherlands is among the first EU Member States to introduce a real-time declaration process to replace periodic reporting in line with the legal requirements of the Union Customs Code (UCC) to be completed across the EU by 2025.  The Netherlands was also one of the first countries with which C4T connected for the purposes of automatic declaration filing.

In anticipation of the imposition of a uniform data model for all EU states, C4T has built its own centralised, collaborative system, CAS on the same model of customs codes. Accordingly CAS is compatible with not only the new Dutch DMS (Douane-aangiften Management System) but with all the new automated customs clearance systems being developed in each EU state.

“The EU’s Union Customs Code came into effect in 2016 and is intended to result in a fully automated customs union by 2025,” outlines C4T’s Product Marketing Manager Sam Blakeman. “Each state will retain its own customs control and declaration system, but existing electronic procedures are having to be replaced in order for a more harmonised, and hopefully frictionless, freight transport environment to be achieved across the EU.”

The Dutch government has always been committed to as simplified a customs regime as possible in order to encourage the logistics industry to develop further in its ports’ hinterlands.  Consequently it is leading the way in developing DMS with a phased introduction of various elements which started in October last year.  A second phase was completed earlier this year and the final step comes in October.

“Our CAS system is integrated with Portbase which facilitates the CVB message and automates the pre-notification and presentation notification processes — each vital in ensuring the free-flow of import cargo through Dutch customs from October 4^th onwards,” explains Blakeman.Further elements of DMS will be brought into play through 2023 with the completion of full implementation scheduled for June.

Pieter Haesaert is Founder and President of C4T.  He is enthusiastic about the procedural changes to the customs union and what C4T can offer.  “True frictionless trade within the EU’s twenty-seven states is a tall order.  The current UCC initiative will go a long way to achieving it.  Apart from the willingness to invest and to commit to systems change by governments, we need a heightening of importer/exporter awareness and an effective ‘one-stop’ platform to help them on their way. At C4T we intend to help with both the last two imperatives.”

Established in 2008, Haesaert built the CAS platform from the ground up, employing the more flexible IT technologies available over the last ten years such as real-time data processing and native cloud solutions.  He describes the resulting software represented by CAS as a “Late-comer to the party.” He continues, “Of course, the advantage is that it is easier for us to incorporate the data model on which the UCC initiative is built than it is for customs software providers with legacy systems that arrived earlier. So, we’ll be inviting many more involved in EU trade to the dance and aiming to lead them to customs harmony.”

About Customs4trade (C4T)

C4T has a unique team of customs experts and best-of-breed technology engineers and has developed CAS, a one-of-a-kind software solution for customs and trade compliance. Managed Customs Services have been added to this product offering, helping companies make the most of their software investment.

CAS is a collaborative hub, built on the Microsoft Azure platform and delivered as a service (SaaS). It is designed to manage regional and worldwide customs and trade compliance quickly and accurately, within one single platform. CAS provides customers with continual updates and feature enhancements, including the incorporation of any changes to legislation and compliance regulation—along with Azure’s signature accessibility, scalability, and security.

Forward-thinking companies are turning to C4T to help them navigate customs and trade with native-cloud software and managed services for their organisation’s highest strategic benefit.  

For more information or to contact the company, please visit www.customs4trade.com.    

The long-heralded migration of import declarations from CHIEF to CDS comes to fruition on 30th September.  Importers in the UK must register on CDS prior to that date or face significant delays in customs clearance of their cargoes. Existing CHIEF system will be shut down as of that date.

C4T, the global customs solutions provider is increasingly concerned about the number of UK importers yet to register for, and become familiar with, the customs regulator HMRC’s news Customs Declaration Service (CDS).  The deadline for migration from the old CHIEF system is 30^th September and declarations using CHIEF from 1^st October onwards will not be valid.  At the beginning of this month HMRC drew attention to the urgent need for importers not yet registered for CDS to take action immediately.

Yesterday HMRC reported that it is seeing increased activity according to all its dashboard measures. The agency distinguishes two critical groups of declarants: the top 248 and 3000 others that should ‘ideally be ready’ (based on the assumption that these companies are currently using CHIEF for imports). Of the top group 225 are live on CDS, representing 77% of all declarations in the current CHIEF system.  400 of the group of 3000 are at least registered on CDS with a further 500 live on the new system.

C4T has clients based in the UK and other parts of Europe regularly moving freight into the country.  Pieter Haesaert is Founder and President,  “HMRC are making concerted strides to close the gap with a programme of pro-active contact to the balance of non-registered importers with the 3000 group.  Over 50% of this out-reach has been completed.” he reports. “In addition to these two critical groups, there are some 15,000 importers with direct debit accounts for the payment of import duty that HMRC states need to adapt to CDS.  They are also being contacted.”

“Despite this concentrated activity by HMRC, and others in educating and advising importers and brokers on the technical detail of the changes in data entry required by the transfer from CHIEF to CDS, there clearly remain major concerns over the lack of preparation by numerous companies.” 

C4T understands that HMRC is planning a further announcement on the progress of the migration to CDS in mid-September.

Whether registered or not there is also a significant lack understanding by importers over aspects of the CDS system.  Haesaert continues, “A poll taken during one of our own regular webinars offering advice on the changes suggested that over a third of respondents felt ‘not comfortable at all’ with the changes to the data fields required for custom’s entries.”

C4T is confident that the CDS technology is ready and capable of handling the change- over, believing it to be well designed and thoroughly tested over a lengthy period. It represents a much needed up-date to the thirty-year old CHIEF system and its final introduction is well timed to be synchronised with similar transfers to new systems that are planned in other European countries over the next two years. 

C4T, along with the majority of software providers, is well prepared to provide the necessary support to UK importers.  With its further established connections into the Dutch, Belgian, French and German customs infrastructures, C4T has the resource to also guide importers and exporters through the coming changes in these countries. 

However as Haesaert says, ”Our immediate focus is on the end of September.  We must continue to urge those companies not CDS compliant to get on-board and seek assistance if they are still not assured of a seamless transfer to the new system.  At C4T we stand ready to help and are prepared to adapt should HMRC feel it necessary to introduce a contingency plan to deal with imports accompanied by incorrect declarations post 30^th September.”

About Customs4trade (C4T)

C4T has an unique team of customs experts and best-of-breed technology engineers and has developed CAS, a one-of-a-kind software solution for customs and trade compliance. Managed Customs Services have been added to this product offering, helping companies make the most of their software investment.

CAS is a collaborative hub, built on the Microsoft Azure platform and delivered as a service (SaaS). It is designed to manage regional and worldwide customs and trade compliance quickly and accurately, within one single platform. CAS provides customers with continual updates and feature enhancements, including the incorporation of any changes to legislation and compliance regulation—along with Azure’s signature accessibility, scalability, and security.

Forward-thinking companies are turning to C4T to help them navigate customs and trade with native-cloud software and managed services for their organisation’s highest strategic benefit.  

For more information or to contact the company, please visit www.customs4trade.com.