What is ICS2 (Import Control System)?

Carriers and businesses that import goods to or transit goods through the EU countries. That includes Postal operators, Express Carriers, Freight forwarders and goods owners.

Indirectly all manufacturers, exporters and individuals from outside the EU that send goods to or through the EU will be affected.

 

ICS2 is a central electronic system (data collection point) to register goods that will be imported to the European Union (EU) prior to their arrival. It allows the EU to gain more control over the goods that are transported to or through its borders. 

As a result, the EU should be able to better identify high-risk consignments, intervene at the most appropriate point in the supply chain and reduce the amount of illegal goods arriving within its borders to protect its single market and citizens.

 

All economic operators in the transport chain are obliged to adjust their systems and procedures to electronically exchange data with ICS2 and send info about the importable goods earlier in the process. Previously it was sufficient to declare the goods on arrival. 

Failing to do so will likely cause the goods not to be loaded for transport and mean delayed shipments in addition to extra storage fees for the owner of the goods.

Implementation of ICS2 will reduce the amount of manual information processing and replace it with an integrated system that exchanges customs data electronically.

 

Carriers, freight forwarders and postal operators will integrate their systems with ICS2 and create a possibility for their customers (goods owners) to fill out the goods declaration in self-service on an electronic form.

 

Many businesses have relied on their transport partner on doing customs procedures for them. Carriers will start to request their customers to fill out import declarations in-house. Despite the additional effort at the start, it has the potential to reduce the overall transport costs and decrease the transit time in the long run. Mainly because the carrier-side customs declarant would not be involved and declaration data moves automatically from the source to ICS2.

 

ICS2 is implemented in three separate stages (releases), starting from integrations between carriers (including postal operators) and ICS2. That will be followed by optional integrations between businesses and carriers.

Different timelines apply depending on your role in the transport process:

Source: Taxation and Customs Union, European Comission

 

Businesses that use Cargoson TMS software as their everyday transport management system can fill out their declaration conveniently in Cargoson together with the transport booking. Cargoson will send the declaration data with the shipment automatically to the carriers that have the capability to receive this information. The amount of carriers that have this functionality ready is limited at the moment but the number will increase over time.