Customs Clearance: Everything You Need to Know to Secure Your Import-Export Operations

Every item of goods entering or leaving the territory of the European Union goes through an unavoidable step: customs clearance. This customs procedure fulfills a dual objective. On one side, it guarantees the regulatory compliance of products (safety standards, health checks, export restrictions). On the other, it ensures the payment of customs duties and import VAT, an essential condition for being fiscally compliant.

For companies that regularly import or export, fully understanding the mechanisms of customs clearance means avoiding delays, customs hold-ups, and unpleasant financial surprises.

What Is Customs Clearance?

Customs clearance refers to the procedure by which customs authorities authorize the entry or exit of goods into or out of a customs territory. Contrary to a widespread belief, this procedure does not operate at the level of a country, but at the level of the European Union. It is the crossing of the EU's external border that triggers customs formalities, not the crossing of a border between two member states.

The regulatory framework governing all these operations is the Union Customs Code (UCC), in force since 2016. It harmonizes customs rules across the 27 member states and defines the rights and obligations of economic operators.

Customs clearance concerns both imports and exports. At import, it involves verifying that products comply with European standards (a toy must meet safety requirements, a food product health standards) and collecting the applicable taxes. For exports, controls also exist: certain products require authorization, others are prohibited, and each operation feeds into external trade statistics.

In France, it is the General Directorate of Customs and Indirect Taxes (DGDDI) that oversees the entire system.

The Steps of Customs Clearance, from Preparation to Release

Each step conditions the next, and an error at a given stage can block the entire chain.

Gathering the Required Documents

Before any operation, you must have an EORI number (Economic Operators Registration and Identification), mandatory for every economic operator carrying out customs operations in the EU. This number is your unique identifier with European customs administrations.

Your customs clearance file must include:

• The supplier's commercial invoice, detailing the nature, quantity, and value of the goods
• The maritime bill of lading or air waybill (AWB) depending on the mode of transport
• The packing list
• The certificate of origin, in particular the EUR.1 certificate if a free trade agreement applies
• Specific licenses or authorizations depending on the nature of the products (health, phytosanitary, dual-use)

Collecting these documents before shipment remains the best way to avoid a customs hold-up. On a platform like Customeo, the client uploads their commercial documents directly into the file, allowing the declarant to prepare the declaration without back-and-forth by email.

Filing the Customs Declaration

The customs declaration is the formal act by which you declare your goods to the administration. Historically based on the Single Administrative Document (SAD), it is now entirely digitalized.

Since November 2024, the new system Delta I/E has been progressively replacing the old Delta G (import) and Delta X (export) online services. This new system increases the number of fields from 56 to 120, offering greater granularity of declared information. The end of the paper SAD is confirmed. The transition period for imports ended in May 2025, and the export component is currently being deployed.

Among the key pieces of information to provide: the tariff classification of your goods (6-digit HS code + 10-digit TARIC code for the EU), the customs value, and the country of origin. These three elements directly determine the amount of applicable duties and taxes.

Inspection, Assessment, and Release

Once the declaration is filed, the customs administration proceeds with the inspection through three possible circuits.

The Three Customs Inspection Circuits

The green circuit corresponds to a near-immediate release, without inspection. The orange circuit triggers a documentary inspection: the officer checks the consistency between the declaration and the documents provided. The red circuit involves a physical inspection of the goods, which is longer but relatively rare.

The next step is assessment: the calculation of customs duties and import VAT, based on the customs value, tariff classification, and origin of the goods. Once payment is made, customs issues the clearance release, which authorizes the actual release of the goods. Under normal circumstances, the entire process takes between 1 and 5 business days.

Standard Procedure or Domiciled Procedure?

Several procedures coexist depending on your operator profile and the volume of your flows.

The Standard Procedure at the Customs Office

This is the standard procedure. Your goods are physically presented at the competent customs office, the declaration is filed, inspections are carried out, and duties are paid on the spot. It is suitable for occasional operators or companies with limited import-export volumes. Its limitation: each operation requires a visit to the office, which can slow down the logistics chain when flows multiply.

The Domiciled Clearance Procedure

The home clearance procedure (PDD) allows formalities to be carried out directly at your company's premises, without having to visit the customs office each time. This facilitation is granted by written authorization from the customs administration and requires a demonstrated level of reliability.

In practice, the PDD offers significant time savings and better logistics flow fluidity. It is often associated with Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) status, a trust label issued by customs that opens access to additional facilitations (fewer inspections, priority processing, access to centralized clearance).

Centralized Clearance

Provided for by the UCC (Article 179), centralized clearance allows declarations to be filed from a single point, even if your goods arrive at different customs offices. For multi-site companies or those managing flows across several ports and airports, it is a valuable operational efficiency tool. The declaration is processed by a reference office, while the physical inspection, if required, is carried out at the office where the goods are presented.

Who Is Involved in the Customs Clearance Process?

You can carry out your customs clearance operations yourself, as a direct declarant. This is the case when your company has the internal skills and necessary authorizations to file its own customs declarations.

In most cases, however, companies use a third-party declarant. The registered customs representative (RDE) acts on your behalf, either in direct representation (they declare in your name and on your behalf), or in indirect representation (they declare in their own name but on your behalf, and become jointly liable for payment of duties).

The customs agent, often referred to as a freight forwarder in common parlance, frequently combines transport management and customs formalities. Their role is to handle the administrative complexity so you can focus on your business. They prepare the file, file the declaration, monitor the process, and return the customs documents to you once the operation is complete.

Using a customs professional is particularly justified when your flows are regular, when your goods fall under complex classifications, or when you operate to destinations subject to specific regulations.

The Mistakes That Block Your Clearance Operations

• An incorrect tariff classification is the most common error. Using the HS code provided by your supplier without verifying it is risky: each product must be classified according to the Harmonized System, and a tariff position error directly changes the applicable duty rate. Binding Tariff Information (BTI) allows your classification to be secured for three years.
• An incorrectly declared customs value, whether intentionally understated or incompletely calculated (overlooking transport costs, insurance, or licensing fees), exposes the operator to a reassessment. Customs services have tools for detecting abnormally low values.
• Missing or mutually inconsistent documents (discrepancy between invoice and packing list, absent certificate of origin) systematically cause a hold-up until the situation is regularized. This is one of the cases where a centralized management platform like Customeo makes a difference: each document is attached to the file, accessible in seconds, and inconsistencies are detected before the declaration is filed.
• Incorrect application of origin rules causes the loss of preferential agreement benefits and results in paying customs duties at the full rate.

Penalties are governed by Articles 410 to 412 bis of the Customs Code. They range from a class 1 misdemeanor (error without tax implications) to class 3 (compromising the collection of duties and taxes). If you detect an error before an inspection, proactive correction significantly reduces penalties. The DGDDI has published a guide to the most frequent errors under the right to make mistakes.

According to UNCTAD, trade facilitation expertise can reduce clearance times by 47% in some contexts.

Digitalizing Customs Formalities for Greater Reliability

Customeo, the online customs clearance platform of the Derudder group (transport and customs specialist since 1905), covers more than 150 customs offices in France and Europe, across 7 countries and 5 languages. It allows all operations (import, export, transit) to be submitted, tracked, and managed from a single interface.

Each file has a tracking timeline with real-time statuses: to be prepared, taken in charge, declaration filed, cleared. Access to documents (commercial and customs) takes just seconds, by simple reference search. For exports, the customs clearance status — which constitutes the tax clearance justifying the tax-free sale — is directly accessible on the platform.

During the AEO audit conducted by customs last December, this ability to instantly retrieve any file was particularly appreciated by the agents. The data is secure, centralized, and accessible without delay, whereas physical archives would have required days of searching.

Conclusion

Customs clearance is mastered through method: rigorous documentary preparation, verified tariff classification, and real-time tracking of the progress of files. The transition to Delta I/E confirms the trend toward complete digitalization of customs formalities.