The Customs (Transitional) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

The Regulations are made by the Treasury further to Parts 1 and 6 of the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 (c. 22) (“the Act”). This is an EU Exit statutory instrument.

Part 1 provides for citation and commencement. The Regulations will largely be brought into force by way of a separate statutory instrument made under section 52 of the Act, but certain provisions will come into force on 30th December 2020.

Part 2 makes transitional and savings provision further to the EU withdrawal agreement. Regulation 3 saves domestic legislation which implements the EU Customs code (“the Code”) for cases where the EU withdrawal agreement requires the Code to apply in the United Kingdom after IP completion day. Regulations 4, 6 and 7 make provision to implement Article 47 of the EU withdrawal agreement. Regulations 5 and 8 to 10 clarify how goods should be treated under the Act once the EU Customs Code ceases to apply under the EU withdrawal agreement.

Regulations 11 and 13 amend the Customs (Import duty) (EU Exit) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2019/1248) and the Customs (Export) Regulations 2019 (S.I. 2019/108) to remove provision that has been replaced by these Regulations and the EU withdrawal Agreement. Regulations 12 and 14 to 17 make a number of minor amendments to various EU Exit instruments.

The notices referred to in regulations 6 and 7 will be published at www.gov.uk/government/collections/customs-vat-and-excise-eu-exit-legislation-from-1-january-2021 . Free of charge hard copies will be available on request from Customs and Border Design Policy, HMRC, 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ.

A Tax Information and Impact Note has not been prepared for this instrument as it contains no substantive changes to tax policy.