Below is a quick overview of customs and shipment requirements around the world that may cause delays to the delivery of your international shipments.
Saudi Arabia - 10th January 2011
New requirements on low value shipments into and out of Saudi Arabia.
From January 14th 2011, all inbound and outbound consignments with a commercial value of US$100 and above must be cleared in the actual consignee/consignor name. Customs require the owner of the shipment on the Customs declaration to be a registered name as the importer of record.
Based on the new regulation, customers are required to provide TNT with a valid authorisation letter and a copy of the company commercial registration in Saudi Arabia. The authorisation letters need to cover the import and export transactions and based on location will need to be addressed to the relevant Customs gateway. Authorisation letters need to be printed on the company letterhead and attested by the chamber of commerce.
In Saudi Arabia, customers are requested to provide the authorisation letter and commercial registration copy before January 14th to avoid delays in clearance.
Countries exporting to Saudi Arabia are requested to advise their shippers that their receivers will need to comply with the above regulation to avoid unnecessary delays in clearance.
Turkey - 23rd December 2010
Alcoholic beverages sending to Turkey
According to Turkish Customs Regulations, it is forbidden to import alcoholic beverages to Turkey even if it was sent as a Christmas gift or a sample.
These kind of shipments will be held by Turkish Customs and contents will be destroyed. This proces also creates "destroy charges" which are charged to clients. It would be appreciated if care could be taken regarding this issue to avoid undesired situations.
United Kingdom 10th December 2010
Following the recent attempts by terrorists to conceal explosive devices on aircraft containing cargo, the carriage by air of shipments containing printer ink or toner cartridges weighing more than 500 grammes had been prohibited.
With effect 10 December, the above restrictions were removed and replaced with a prohibition on "printing equipment including printers, photocopiers and fax machines with an ink or toner cartridge weighing more than 500 grammes installed in the equipment in such a manner as is to make the equipment operational."
Please be advised, all printers travelling from, to or via the UK must have any ink or toner cartridge removed and shipped as a separate package. It is not permitted to have the ink and toner cartridge within the carton containing the printer, copier or fax machine.
This prohibition is in place until 10 June, 2011 and applies only to shipments by air (Express and Economy Express services where air transport is used).
South Africa 9th November 2010
Please be advised that gifts sent to private persons and companies in South Africa are subject to normal customs clearance, meaning that the receiver will be charged import taxes prior to submitting the declarations to Customs.
To prevent complications of this nature it is advisable to ship the gifts on INCO terms "DDP". The only exception to this is gifts from a private person to a private person when the value of the goods are below ZAR 400. All clearances will still require the relevant "importers" Customs Client Number and the word "gift" must be stated on the commercial invoice in addition to a detailed description.