Upcoming changes to transit declarations

The changes to the EU customs legislation will bring about phased changes to customs declarations in 2019‒2025.

Transit declarations, current situation

In Finland, transit declarations are submitted in the Customs Clearance Service or via message exchange.

Transit declarations are currently submitted with EU’s transition period rules. For example, providing the commodity code is optional, and there can only be one house consignment. This means that only one consignor can be provided in the transit declaration.

Safety and security data can be provided in the transit declaration for arriving goods, in which case no separate entry summary declaration is required.

Transit declarations, upcoming changes

The move from the transition period rules to the final rules will take place on 21 January 2025. Examples of the changes to declarations when the final rules start to apply:

• It will be mandatory to provide the six-digit commodity code.
• There can be 1999 house consignments, when during the transition period there could only be 1.
• A house consignment can have one consignor and one consignee. This means that one declaration can contain no more than 1999 consignee-consignor pairs. Although there can be 1999 house consignments, there can still be no more than 1999 goods items in the whole declaration (rule NR9054).
• The consignee can no longer be provided at goods item level.

Providing safety and security data in transit declarations will change on 24 May 2025. Safety and security data on entry can then no longer be provided in a transit declaration for arriving goods. If Finland is the point of first entry into the EU and the goods are transited from the border, an entry summary declaration must also be submitted for the goods. This entry summary declaration is to be provided in the transit declaration as the previous document.