Dry goods! Tips on Import and Export Clearance-Germany

　　Germany is located in Central Europe and is the economic center of Europe. It borders Poland and the Czech Republic in the east, Austria and Switzerland in the south, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France in the west, Denmark in the north, and the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. It has a very advantageous geographical location. Frankfurt Airport (FRA) in Germany is the second largest airport in Europe and the largest airport in terms of cargo volume. The main airlines that provide direct flights between Shanghai and Frankfurt include Air China, Lufthansa Airlines, and Russian Air Bridge Cargo Airlines. Other major airports include Stuttgart (STR), Munich (MUC), Berlin (TXL) and so on.

The two main ports in Germany are Hamburg and Bremen. Among them, Hamburg is the largest port in Germany, the second largest container port in Europe, and the largest free port in the world, located in the European Community. Bremerhaven is Germany's second largest port, an important transit seaport in Europe, and Germany's second largest port for importing automobiles and textile materials. The bilateral trade volume between China and Germany is growing every year. Since 2010, China has been ranked among the top three or four of Germany's most important trading partners. In 2016, China has become Germany's most important trading partner.

Below we have compiled some basic customs clearance knowledge for import and export in Germany for everyone to learn and understand.

1. Export by air to Germany (for Germany, it is an air import business)

1. Airport warehousing: Generally, the free warehouse period for air cargo exports to German airports is 24 hours, and each airport such as FRA, MUC, STR, etc. has at least 2-3 ground agents to represent different airlines. Different ground agents have different storage fees.

2. German import customs clearance documents: invoices, packing lists, electronic import customs declaration forms. The German consignee must have an EORI No., otherwise the goods cannot be imported. This number is a unique customs registration identification number for EU countries, usually starting with a two-character country code, such as Germany's EORI No., the first two digits must be DE, the Netherlands is NL, the Czech Republic is CZ, etc.

3. General customs clearance process: After the goods arrive at the destination airport in Germany, the general airline ground agent has 6-8 hours of tally time. After the tally is completed, the German agent enters the declaration in the customs system. If everything is normal, 2-3 hours Can be released. It is a different matter when it comes to customs inspection. After the goods are released, you can make an appointment for delivery the next morning.

4. Urgent operation: Before the goods arrive at the destination airport in Germany, pre-entry the declaration in the customs system in advance.

5. Regarding taxes: customs duties can be automatically deducted through the German freight forwarding and customs network, but the 19% value-added tax must be paid by the German consignee, not through the German freight forwarding.

2. Imported from Germany by air (for Germany, it is an air export business)

1. Documents required for German air freight export declaration: invoice, packing list and export declaration form AE (a green list). Note that if the value of the goods exceeds EUR1000, you must provide the export declaration form AE; if it is less than EUR1000, you only need to provide the invoice packing list.

2. Timeliness: General export declaration can be completed on the same day.

3. About the Security Check of German export security: There are two methods, one is X-ray and the other is Sniffer. Security inspections are generally performed by the security inspection department designated by the airline or a full-time security inspection unit. Because some security check machines are not highly recognizable, if a gray or dark gray pattern is found on the machine's display during the security check, a dark-alert will be generated at this time, and manual detection is required. The dark-alert fee varies according to the time spent on the inspection and the weight of the goods.

　　In addition, because of the extremely advantageous geographical location of Germany, if the final consignee is an urgent delivery in the Czech Republic, we can consider a direct flight to Frankfurt, Germany, and then the delivery to the final delivery person in the Czech Republic. The overall aging can save at least one day compared with PVG-PRG.

3. German shipping

A lot of information is similar to air freight business. It needs to be pointed out that LCL goods exported to Germany by sea are usually distributed in 3-5 days abroad. After the distribution is completed, import customs clearance can be completed on the same day, and then arranged inland according to the situation. After being transported by rail to the distribution center of the relevant city, the truck is loaded for distribution. The railway is very developed in Germany, the government has relevant subsidies, the cost is cheap and the timeliness is very fast, usually railway transportation can be completed in one day. For the shipping business, unless the delivery place is near Hamburg, the distribution in other cities is combined by rail and truck.