Customs Clearance & Brokerage

Full-service customs brokerage

We prepare, file and manage import and export declarations, and with them the regulatory documents that travel with the goods: proofs of origin, phytosanitary and veterinary certificates, licences and permits for controlled commodity groups. Changes in Ukrainian and EU customs law move not only the rates but the list of documents a commodity suddenly needs.

Why choose Black Port?

Licensed brokers with 7+ years of clearing goods at Ukrainian borders, ports and airports, and thousands of declarations across virtually every commodity code — which means most commodity groups we have handled before, and we know where each of them trips.

The correspondence is handled by the same broker who filed the declaration. A customs query arrives with a short deadline, and at that moment what counts is not the tariff but whether there is someone to answer it today.

What's included

• Preparation and filing of import and export declarations
• UKTZED (HS) classification and calculation of duties and taxes
• Import and export permit processing
• Proofs of origin and phytosanitary documentation
• Coordination with customs authorities and replies to their queries
• Post-clearance audit support
• Choosing the customs office for the specific consignment

Where the declaration actually gets filed

The customs office is not a given. It follows from three things: where the goods physically arrive, the regime they are declared under, and what is in the document set. Our brokers clear cargo at the borders, in the ports and at inland customs offices, so for each consignment we look at where clearance will actually move.

The first constraint is administrative: not every post offers every kind of control — phytosanitary, veterinary and radiological posts sit at selected locations only, and a commodity that needs one can be cleared nowhere else. The second is the border against an inland office. At the border the vehicle stands under the clock; moving under customs transit removes that — the cargo is unloaded at a temporary storage warehouse near the consignee — but it adds a transit leg, and often a guarantee for its duration.

The regime the consignment is declared under moves both the document set and the moment of payment — but that decision is taken together with the warehouse, and it is set out on the warehouse storage page. We need one thing from it: what you intend to do with the goods next.

The documents a declaration is built from

The exact set depends on the commodity and the delivery terms, but the frame is almost always the same. Customs reads the documents against each other before it looks at the cargo — which is why a contradiction inside the set stops a clearance more reliably than anything else.

• Foreign trade contract with specifications — the basis for the supply and the source of the delivery terms.
• Commercial invoice — price, currency, delivery terms; the customs value starts here.
• Packing list — package count, gross and net weight, what is in each pallet or carton.
• Transport document — CMR on road, bill of lading at sea, AWB in the air, consignment note on a rail leg.
• Carriage contract and freight invoice — on EXW or FCA terms the customs value cannot be substantiated without them.
• Proof of origin — an EUR.1 certificate or an invoice declaration is what opens the preferential rate under a free trade agreement.
• Commodity-specific permits — phytosanitary or veterinary certificate, conformity certificate, licence, radiological control.
• Payment documents and a technical description — evidence of the price actually paid, and the basis for classification.

Exports: the same logic, different evidence

Exports are built on the same frame and prove different things: the zero VAT rate is supported by the cleared export declaration, not by the invoice or the CMR; some commodity groups need a licence or sit under a quota; and the proof of origin is prepared to the destination country's requirements — your buyer is the one who needs it, and the one who knows what form it is accepted in there.

Who is responsible for what

Responsibility for the accuracy of a declaration sits with the declarant — the importer or the exporter — even when a broker files it. That is why we ask for primary documents rather than a summary of them in an email.

The broker classifies the goods, builds and files the declaration, and handles the correspondence with customs. The carrier is responsible for delivering the goods into the customs control zone with the customs seals intact — a broken seal turns a routine clearance into an inspection with a formal report. The seller is responsible for the invoice, packing list and proof of origin describing the consignment that actually arrived.

From arrival to release

• Reconciling the set before dispatch. The documents are checked against each other, the code is settled and the duties and taxes are estimated. At this stage a correction is an email to the seller; at the border it is days of standing time.
• Arrival in the customs control zone. The vehicle enters the destination customs office or a temporary storage warehouse. From that moment the goods are under customs control and the clock on filing is running.
• Filing the declaration. It is filed electronically, and the automated risk management system sets the form of control — from a documentary check to a physical inspection with unloading.
• Payment of duties and taxes. Import duty, VAT and, for excisable goods, excise. The money has to actually land on the customs account: a payment still in transit will not release the cargo.
• Control, and inspection if one is assigned. Markings, weight and package counts are verified against the documents, samples are taken where required, and the outcome is recorded in a formal report. Our part is the customs queries and the answers to them.
• Release into free circulation. The goods can be moved and sold, and the declaration stays with you as the basis for your accounting, your VAT credit, and any post-clearance audit later on.

The classification code decides everything else

A ten-digit UKTZED code is not one box among many on the form: the duty rate, whether a licence or certificate is needed, which non-tariff measures apply and whether a preference is available all follow from it. The first six digits are the Harmonised System heading and subheading.

The code is driven by the objective characteristics of the goods — material, function, degree of processing — and by the general interpretative rules, not by the name on the supplier's price list. The results are not always intuitive: a set put up for retail sale is classified by the component that gives it its essential character, while the same parts shipped separately each take their own code and their own rate.

So “spare parts” is not a description of goods: without material, composition, purpose and method of manufacture the code cannot be settled at all. Reclassification after filing means an additional assessment and often a penalty; for a new product the code is better settled before the contract — that is customs consulting.

How the customs value is determined

The customs value is the base the duty is assessed on, and VAT is then charged on customs value plus duty plus excise. The primary method is the transaction value: the price actually paid or payable, plus the costs the buyer carries under the delivery terms — carriage to the place of importation, loading and handling, insurance, certain commissions, containers and packing.

Where customs has a reasoned doubt about the declared value it asks for supporting documents — the manufacturer's price list, the export declaration from the country of dispatch, accounting and payment records. Values are adjusted less because a price is low than because a low price cannot be evidenced. If the documents are not enough, the remaining methods apply in a fixed order: identical goods, similar goods, deductive value, computed value, and the fallback method.

The cargo can be released against a financial guarantee while the point is argued: the money is frozen, but the goods move on. A valuation adjustment is open to appeal and overpayments come back — but only after they have been paid.

Why declarations get held

The list of causes is short and repetitive; what matters more is what closes each one.

• Documents that disagree — weight, package count or contract number. Closed by a corrected document from the seller; an explanation from the importer does not do it.
• Doubt about the customs value — the declared price sits below the level customs is used to seeing for that code. Closed by evidence of the price, not by explanations of it.
• Disputed classification — the inspector reads the code differently. Closed with the manufacturer's technical documentation, and in hard cases with an expert examination or a classification ruling.
• A missing permit nobody thought about at the purchasing stage. Nothing closes it except obtaining the document, and it is usually the longest delay of them all.
• An error on the proof of origin: the preference is lost and the full rate applies. Closed by a replacement certificate from the exporter — sometimes only after release, with a claim for the overpaid duty.
• Money that has not reached the customs account although the payment was sent. Closed by time, and avoided by sending the funds ahead of arrival rather than on the day.