New Customs declaration speeds e-commerce cargo through Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport

Dutch Customs has teamed up with the Schiphol airport cargo community in Amsterdam to launch a simplified e-commerce declaration called VENUE.
The declaration has been designed to help shippers import and export items that are being purchased via e-commerce platforms – such as fashion, personal care, and homeware – throughout the Union Customs Code transition period, which ends in January 2021.
The VENUE declaration will be available at Europe’s third largest cargo hub until the third quarter of  2019.
“Together with Dutch Customs we are engaged in cooperating with stakeholders at the airport to find new ways of working which can further improve efficiencies,” said Saskia van Pelt, business development director, Schiphol Cargo.
“The air cargo market is changing and we are seeing a huge increase in e-commerce parcels. At Schiphol we are focused on ensuring we continue to provide a high quality, efficient service for our e-commerce customers and VENUE will help us to do just that.”
VENUE-authorised shippers are able to submit a pre-declaration leaving out one or more particulars, such as the Harmonised System (HS) code, and with goods valued at €22 or less requiring no supplementary declaration.
Schiphol airport management said that VENUE has “significant advantages” because generating HS codes can be time consuming, adding: “Particulars are provided to Customs in a supplementary declaration of a periodic nature, reducing administrative time and costs for both Customs and the authorisation holder.”
Alex Drost, authorised economic auditor at Dutch Customs, said: “The rise in e-commerce is changing the supply chain and last year we saw an increase of 15% in Customs declarations, even though the volumes at Amsterdam remained stable.”