HM Revenue and Customs has said that businesses should now migrate their export declarations to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS), in preparation for it being the sole digital service for trade declarations from 4 June.
CDS is replacing the Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) service, providing greater functionality.
It was launched in 2018 for import declarations, for which it became mandatory in October of last year, and is already used for more than 30% of export declarations.
The announcement on the closure of CHIEF follows delays in the migration as HMRC reacted to feedback from the industry.
Key milestone
Sarah Hartley, HMRC’s director of border change delivery, said: “The open migration for exports from CHIEF to CDS marks a key milestone for HMRC, and we would like to thank all our partners who were involved in making this achievement happen.
“We are encouraging businesses to move over as soon as they can so the transition to CDS is as smooth as possible for everyone.”
The department has made a toolkit and checklist available to assist exporters and importers.
