A Step by Step GUIDE to IMPORTING into UK (2021) | Incl DOCUMENTS Required !

Hi everyone nisha menon nicaraguan food director and founder of jack and chill so in this video i'm going to walk you through a checklist or

guide

that you need to look at when

importing

products into the uk if this is the The first time you visit my channel, don't forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you don't miss any new videos. I'll upload first things first. What do you need when you import your products? You need an eori number. i.e. the economic operator registration identification number which is something that customs uses to monitor or track goods or shipments entering and leaving the EU or European Union.

You can usually get this number by applying on the HMRC website. Three to five business days, what you can do is go to gov dot uk forward uri and you can apply your uri number there. If you are already VAT registered, usually your eori number will be linked to the VAT number, but it is always good. to see if they are both linked, next is the customs product code, that is something that customs needs because that is how you declare what products you are

importing

, what are the ingredients, what is the packaging like, is it in bulk or retail, because depending on the weight is the way the tax or v80 is paid on the products and also whether it is for human consumption or not, depending on several factors, it depends on how much tax, tax or VAT you pay for these products.

You can find the correct product code. Using the trade tariff tool on the hmrc website what you do is go to the hmrc website which is called trade tariff.gov dot uk and I leave the link in the description below go there and you will see that there are sections. which shows the different types of products that you are importing or there is even a search bar where you can put what the product is and you will get an idea that is almost similar to the products that you are importing. Click on these chapters or the sections and then you will get a breakdown of different types of products frozen, chilled and depending on the ingredients and everything and accordingly they will calculate the tariff or levy or v80 if you have to pay for the products, so what you can do is You can always contact the HMRC people at Classification.Enquiries at hmrc.gov dot uk.

The next thing you need to know is that you have to pay a tax or duty or VAT, as I said before, so again go to the HMRC website where they have the trade tariff tool and find out if you pay the duty or levy and how much tariff or levy generally applies to goods coming from abroad, you will have to pay the tariff and again depends on what types of goods you are importing. VAT is usually around 20, you have a reduced rate of five percent and a zero rate of zero percent and generally food products intended for human consumption are zero rated.

The exceptions are products like sweets, chips or even hot drinks or something like that. They have a v80. The next thing you need to know is if you need an import license again. I'm going to take you to the same website which is the commercial website, so go there and find out if you need an import license because that is a main website. where you have to find out everything and you also have to be aware of whether the products you are purchasing are products that are banned or not in the UK, let's say the example of red chilli powder, you have to get a certificate that says it is free of something called Sudandai because Sudandai is something they use for solvents or oils or anything else.

Another example is like dairy products. Dairy products are not allowed from India to the United Kingdom. Meat products, so you need to make sure that your product or the ingredient in your product is not banned. is point number five, which is the cost of freight and insurance. I've made a video before that shows a breakdown of the different types of costs involved when you're setting up your own business and also how you choose your product and everything you can. Take a look, when you have some time, there are two types of freight, one is called air freight and the other is sea freight, so air freight is usually for goods less than 20 kilos and if you want the goods faster , well, but it is more expensive, it is at least four to five times more than the uh, you know, the products that come on the ship and the companies that you can use are dhl, tnt, fedex or even usps, the next one is sea ​​transport, so sea transport, ah.

The good thing is that you can move larger volumes compared to air transport and if your goods weigh more than 100 kilos then that would be what I would suggest and the disadvantage obviously is that you wouldn't get it any faster, it takes around 35 to 40 days if you receive it from India to UK if it is sea transport, it has two types which are called fcl which is full container load or lcl, it is less than one container load, one full container load can be 20 One foot container or 40 foot container, one 20 foot container can carry about 10 to 12 tons of goods and one 40 foot container can carry about 25 to 30 tons of goods and it can be an environmental container or a temperature control like a refrigerated, you know, reefer container, they call it.

The other option is the LCL, which is less than a container load. If your order does not fill one container, then you can opt for this option, which is a consolidated option to fill with the other. customer orders and you can get it as a partial container in the UK so when you get these quotes from the overseas supplier you need to keep in mind if they are quoting you an f4b cost or is it a cnf cost because these are two . The types of costs they can offer you fob are called free shipping on board or freight on board which means the cost

incl

udes the goods arriving at the supplier's port, so let's say your supplier is based in Mumbai and when you say fob Mumbai port means it covers the cost of goods to Mumbai port from Mumbai port, it is your responsibility to send them to London port, logistics clearance of the goods and then deliver them to your customers also, but if it is a cost CNF, so CNF means cost and freight if you are quoted.

CIF means cost and freight insurance, which means the insurance is

incl

uded there, if it is the port of London CNF, it means that he has quoted you for the goods arriving at the port of London so that the shipment is covered from there, you is in charge of cargo transportation, customs. authorization from port health authorities and then logistics in the United Kingdom. When you think about all this, you know you're going to say, "Oh, I can't do all this alone," so you might start to panic a little bit, so the question arises: should I use an agent to do all this?

When the goods arrive at the port, there is a lot of paperwork to submit, so as a first time importer, we especially have no idea what we have to do, so you better give it to us. those procedures for them, they do all the work, they will even find out the customs code of the product for you. They have contacts with the shipping agent, air freight companies, port health authorities and customs, so it really makes your life much easier to have a freight forwarder. Now let's see what are the

documents

you need when you import the goods, first and foremost, you need to have an air waybill or a bill of lading, it's called, it's like a receipt that the shipping company or the air transportation company gives you. to the exporter when they Accept the products and usually what they do is the exporter or supplier can mail you the original bill of lading.

If you purchase the products through a letter of credit or through the bank, your supplier's bank will send it to your bank. The bank will then deliver them to you or may even instruct them to send them directly to the freight forwarder or shipping line. The next document you need is the commercial invoice. Commercial invoice, as you can guess from the name, is something that shows the value. of the products, so you have to show the contact details of the supplier, your contact details, that is the name and address, what is the country of origin, then what destination support and the shipping port, and you must show what the products are, how it is packaged, such as.

Let's say if it's jackfruit, it's one kilo multiplied by ten, so how do you package it in that and then what is the unit value of the products and the total value of the products and what currency is it in? The following is the packing list, which is similar. to the commercial invoice, but here it will not show the value of the products, but similar details, such as supplier details, their details, country of origin, destination port, what are the products, how much is the quantity here, what is showing is what. It is the weight as the net weight and the gross weight of the goods.

Another document you may need is the gsp certificate or it is called preferential certificate, which is not mandatory, it depends on the country you are importing the goods from and the product. For example, you are importing, let's say you are importing food products from India, so from India you will have a preferential rate for certain products that you are importing again. I will take you to the same trade tariff website which is where you will see if your products have preferential rate or not, if you see that you are getting preferential rate or reduced tariff rate you need to inform the supplier and tell them to provide you the gsp certificate , but these days it doesn't have any gsp certificate. it is simply called rex number, so what the supplier can do is simply indicate or declare on the invoice that this is our rex registration number and that we comply with the rules of the european union and that the products mentioned in this invoice are of Indian origin.

It's the import license and again I'm going to mention the trade tariff website. I think I have mentioned it at least 10-15 times in this video, once you hand over these

documents

to the portal authorities or customs, either through the freight forwarder or yourself. They go through all this and if the products are also good then they ship them usually around three or four days and after that you can arrange the logistics and pay the tax or v80 as well as one thing you need to keep in mind. Please note that even if it is shipping line or air transportation, it will only have four to five working days at the port, if it is air cooler, it is less than 24 hours, so you need to make sure your goods are They ship within the specified time limit, otherwise they will start charging you something called demarrage charges, which can be quite expensive if you are delayed at the port.

Everything happens if you don't provide them with the

required

documentation, so make sure you provide them with all the

required

documentation, the list of ingredients so that they can calculate the tariff or the levy beforehand, so I would say at least two weeks in advance or whatever. as soon as possible, just give them all of this, so it's all about importing. I hope you found this video useful, if you liked it, please like it and don't forget to hit the subscribe button and the notification bell so you don't miss any new videos I upload before I go.

I'd like to ask. What are the topics you want me to cover in future videos? If you could leave them in the comments below, I'll be sure to add them to my list and create future videos until then. Until then, goodbye.