Providing the restriction information on F-gases in the export declaration
The European Commission aims to reduce imports and exports of fluorinated greenhouse gases (F-gases) and ozone-depleting substances (ODS). Additional information must be provided in the customs declaration when you are exporting the following products:
- fluorinated greenhouse gases as well as products and equipment that contain such gases or whose functioning relies upon such gases (Regulation (EU) 2024/573)
- ozone-depleting substances as well as products and equipment containing ozone-depleting substances or whose functioning relies upon those substances (Regulation (EU) 2024/590)
Before exporting products (equipment) or chemicals (bulk) containing F-gases, the exporter must register in the European Commission’s F-gas Portal. The registration number assigned by the F-gas Portal must be provided in the export declaration with the additional information code Y123. The registration number is provided as the description of the code.
Read more about the F-gas Portal on the European Commission's website.
How to provide the required additional information codes in the export declaration
If the product contains F-gases, the following additional information codes – authorisation and condition codes – at goods item level must be provided in the export declaration:
- Y123 – Undertaking registered in the F-Gas Portal according to Article 20 of Regulation (EU) 2024/573
- Y121 – Tonnes of CO2 equivalent of bulk gases and of gases contained in products or equipment, and parts thereof (TCE)
- Y163 – Net mass of fluorinated greenhouse gases charged in products and equipment
- This code should not be provided if the exported product is a chemical (bulk).
The maximum number of characters in the field for description of additional information is 70.
If the product contains F-gases, but an additional information code doesn’t need to be provided for the commodity code, you should, in any case, provide the authorisation and condition codes for the F-gases in the export declaration.
For example, if there is air-conditioning equipment containing F-gases installed in the product to be exported, the additional information codes in accordance with the F-gas Regulation must be provided in addition to the additional information codes for the commodity code of the air conditioning equipment. In the Customs Clearance Service, it is possible to provide extra additional information codes, even if Taric doesn’t require them.
If the product doesn’t contain F-gases, provide the additional information code Y160 in the export declaration. The additional information code Y160 is provided only once per one commodity code or goods item.
In the export declaration, you should also provide all the other additional, authorisation and condition codes according to Taric required by the commodity code.
At the moment, there is an error in the Customs Clearance Service
At the moment, there is a technical error in the Customs Clearance Service, and no certificate identifier information can be provided in connection with the authorisation and condition codes. Provide the required certificate identifier information on F-gases at goods item level under “Additional reference”. Use the codes FI121, FI123 and FI163 and provide the information required by the corresponding Y codes for them. This error is going to be fixed in the next update, and after this, the certificate identifier information will be provided in the field “Identifier” for the Y codes.
The export of ozone-depleting substances is prohibited
The export of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and products containing them is prohibited. However, the prohibition doesn’t apply to certain specific purposes listed in Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2024/590 on ODS. The export of these products is, however, subject to an export licence issued by the European Commission.
For example, it is prohibited to export used refrigerating appliances containing CFCs as refrigerants or in plastic insulation from Finland outside the EU. Even if the appliance didn’t contain any controlled substances at the time of export, but its functioning relies upon these substances, it is still covered by the prohibition. Examples of these are refrigerating appliances and compressors whose functioning relies upon CFCs as well as decommissioned fire protection systems and fire extinguishers containing halons.