Customs clearance

Mainfreight offers customs clearance for both your road transport shipments and Air & Ocean shipments. If you are looking for successful clearances, please consider this:

Always use an original CMR cargo letter for shipments to non EU countries.

• Goods description including statistic codes (HS-codes)
• Gross & nett weight; packaging types and amount
• Value per piece and the Total value of the shipment
• Currency of the transaction
• Country of origin and destination
• Name and address of importer and exporter
• Bank details of the importer and exporter
• Delivery conditions (Incoterms)
• Date of issue

With an Eur1 certificate or an invoice statement you can claim preferential duties.
No duties or reduced duties are applied to the import of the goods.

An Eur1 certificate is a document which declares that the goods originated from an EU country and can be requested at your local Chamber of Commerce. Mainfreight can not supply you with an Eur1 certificate!

For shipments with a total customs value of less than € 6.000 you do not need to request an Eur1 certificate. An invoice statement is sufficient. The exporter can issue an invoice statement. With this the exporter declares that the goods originated from an EU-country.
If your goods originated from outside the EU, than you do not need an invoice statement.

The following statements must be placed on the pro-forma invoice:

Invoice statement English:
"The exporter of the products covered by this document declares that, except where otherwise clearly indicated, these products are of …. preferential origin."

For Switzerland and Liechtenstein the invoice statement must be issued in German:
"Der Ausführer der Waren, auf die sich dieses Handelspapier bezieht, erklärt dass diese Waren, soweit nicht anders angegeben, präferenzbegünstigte Europäische Gemeinschafts Ursprungswaren sind."

The invoice statement is completed with place of issue, date, signature and the full name of the authorized person. In case the exporter has a permit, then also shipments with a value of more than 6000 euro, an invoice statement can be used. The authorisation number must then be included on the invoice.

Please note: the signature must be original and must be written with a blue pen/ink. A copy or stamp is not valid.

When goods originate outside of the EU, a certificate of origin may be needed.

This document contains details about the content of the shipment. A packing list is in case of export to customs countries not always obligatory, but it could simplify the customs procedures. Make sure to check (in advance) whether a packing list is required.

• Do not put important documents on the pallet. Always give them to the driver. Please send a copy via e-mail to us, so we can do a pre-check beforehand.
• We cannot make an EUR1 certificate. Only a Chamber of Commerce can do this for you.
• If you want Mainfreight to do the export for you we need a one time authorisation so we can do the declaration for you.
• Customs clearance is applicable within Europe for the following countries: Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino and Eastern European destinations.
• Please use EU or CE as an abbreviation for the European Union. Please do not us EG or EC because this will be misinterpreted as an abbreviation for Egypt (EG) and Ecuador (EC).
• Please note: signatures on documents must always be written in blue ink and need to be original. A copy or stamp is not valid.
• Please use statistics numbers of your Invoice.