Exit of goods from the EU

Goods exiting Finland by sea, air or rail are to be presented electronically by submitting an Arrival at Exit notification in the Customs Clearance Service or via message exchange. An Arrival at Exit notification can be submitted, at the earliest, when the goods have arrived at exit. In Finland, submitting the Arrival at Exit notification is not allowed when the consignment is in the possession of the carrier and on its way to exit. Consignments exiting another EU country are to be presented to customs in the country of exit.

As the trader at exit, provide the trader that operates the means of transport used to transport the goods from the customs office of exit. This carrier is responsible for submitting the notification.

In the Arrival at Exit notification, provide the MRN of the export declaration. A separate Arrival at Exit notification must be submitted for each export MRN. This means that several export declarations cannot be included in one notification.

If the trader at exit detects discrepancies during the loading compared with the details in the export declaration, the details of the discrepancies can be reported with the Arrival at Exit notification. However, reporting the discrepancies doesn’t replace amendment. The exporter must also request amendment of the export declaration.

If the goods have not exited the EU customs territory within 90 days after they have been released for export, Customs requests additional information from the declarant where alternative proof of the exit of the goods is presented. The declarant can also present the proof on their own initiative to the customs authorities of the exporting country.

Acceptable proof is

• a document certifying the import clearance of the goods in the destination country
• a certificate signed by a custom authority in an EU country, proving that the goods have exited
• a transport document signed by the transport operator or other proof to certify that they have transported the goods out of the EU customs territory.

Accepting alternative proof requires that the goods have been specified clearly in the document, so that they easily and reliably can be identified as being the same goods as in the export declaration.

In the case of re-exportation from a customs warehouse, it must be possible to match the alternative proof against the information in the warehouse records and in the decision on release for the procedure.

The alternative proof must be signed and the name printed. Copies of the documents are also accepted.

If more than 150 days have passed since the date of export and the exit has not been confirmed, the declaration is invalidated.

If goods exit by rail, post, air or sea outside the EU under a single transport contract, the place of exit is the place where the carrier concerned takes over the goods and to transport them from the customs territory of the Union. Even in this case, the Arrival at Exit notification can be submitted, at the earliest, when the goods are at the place of exit.

Earlier confirmation of exit is requested by providing the additional information code 30500 in the export declaration.

Simplification of a single transport contract can’t be requested for consignment subject to excise duty or re-export (3171 re-export from customs warehouse, 3151 re-export after inward processing and 3153 re-export after temporary admission). Such consignments are transported to the place of exit in another EU country under the export  procedure. They can also be transferred to the external transit procedure, in which case the consignment exits the EU under transit.

The transport operation must fulfil the following conditions:

• The transport contract has been concluded with a railway company, postal operator, airline or shipping company. 
  • A copy of the contract must be presented to Customs upon request, if the contract is not mentioned in the consignment note, for example.
• The transport contract has been concluded with only one transport operator for carriage to a third country. 
  • It must be possible to monitor the movement of the goods up until they have exited the customs territory permanently, since the customs office of exit supervises that the goods physically leave the EU territory.
  • Subcontractors can be used along the transport route, but the company responsible to the customs authorities remains the same during the transport.
• The goods must exit the EU by air, sea, post or rail. 
  • The rules on the single transport contract do not apply to supplies for ships and aircraft in international traffic.

The export declaration for goods that exit by air must include the following information:

• the code, number and date of the air waybill
  • either air waybill (AWB/HAWB), code N740
  • or master air waybill (MAWB), code N741 
• the code of the office of exit, FI015300 Helsinki Airport, or the code of another customs office supervising an airport when the goods exit via some other airport than Helsinki Airport.

For example, if the goods are transported as air freight from Helsinki by road to Frankfurt and from there by air to the USA, the place of exit of the export goods can be Helsinki, if all the conditions for the transport are met. A single transport contract also brings forward the office of exit to the place of departure when more than one mode of transport is used. On the other hand, transports by air or sea to Germany and from there by road over the customs border do not meet this condition; instead, the place of exit of the export goods is at the external border of the EU.

Another EU country’s export consignment that exits Finland by air

If a single transport contract has been concluded for export goods from the place of export to a destination outside the EU and the exporter has requested bringing forward the office of exit, the exit is confirmed in the country of export. This requires that the country of export, where the export declaration was submitted, has updated its export declarations. If the physical place of exit of such export goods is in Finland, no Arrival at Exit notification is submitted in Finland.

Example 1

In Estonia, an export declaration is submitted for goods that will exit via Helsinki Airport. The export declaration submitted in Estonia contains a request for bringing forward the office of exit because a single transport contract, in this case an air waybill, has been concluded for the goods. This means that the competent customs office of exit is in Estonia, and Estonian Customs confirms the exit of the export goods. An Arrival at Exit notification must not be submitted in Finland if the trader at the airport in Finland who has the knowledge of the existence of the single transport contract (air waybill) for transport commencing in Estonia. 

Example 2

In France, an export declaration is submitted for goods that will exit via Helsinki Airport. France has not yet updated its export declarations. Therefore, an Arrival at Exit notification is submitted to Finnish Customs for this export consignment. In that case, an exit manifest presentation and an exit notification must also be submitted to Customs.