Bolin Technology is a manufacturer of pan, tilt, zoom robotic cameras typically used for streaming, live sports and events. Headquartered in Los Angeles, products are manufactured in China, where the company started.

Around 12 years ago, the company embarked upon an international growth strategy. “Three years ago, we set up the UK hub so that we could sell more effectively into Europe, Middle East and Africa,” Duncan Smith, a Director at Bolin Technology, explains. The UK office provides product support alongside a sales and marketing function.

The company recently signed a reseller for the whole of Europe. “It takes some of the heat off us trying to deal with all the logistics of getting stuff in and out of the UK to other places in the world,” Smith explains. They can deal with that a lot more easily in Europe because they're there.”

However, some units continue to ship from the UK, mostly for demo purposes. Simon Cassford, Field Application Engineer at Bolin, says: “Customers want to test before they buy. You just want to send something out, get it sent back, and not have each country demand a whole bunch of customs charges.”

Disproportionate paperwork

Any sample sent out requires an HS or tariff code; the value of the product must be included on the commercial invoice; and you must supply an EORI number for the recipient when trading goods in or out of the European Union customs territory.

“Every country seems to have its own processing time and function,” Cassford says. “We book our European deliveries through DHL, and they all have slightly different tariff codes depending on which European country you're sending it to. One demo sat in customs for two weeks waiting to be processed. In the end, we had to tell them to return it to sender. We had to pay customs and carriage fees to get it back, or they were going to destroy it.”

ATA Carnet challenges

The ATA Carnet is designed to allow companies to temporarily export commercial samples, trade fair or exhibition goods and professional equipment to countries that are part of the ATA Carnet system. It is designed to simplify customs procedures by acting as a ‘passport for goods’. Commercial samples, professional equipment and trade fair or exhibition items can pass across borders duty and tax free as a result.

The carnet requires serial numbers of all of the items to be exported temporarily. However, there is no scope for any last-minute changes. “The physical units have to be allocated well in advance. If something breaks the day before you're going, you can't just swap that out with a different camera, because the serial number is different,” Smith says.

He believes that the ATA Carnet system is not flexible enough in practice. “We will often take out equipment for other manufacturers to have on their trade show booth. And because it's temporary import/export, you have to travel back with the exact same items that you came out with. So we can't travel back with things that we've collected from our technology partners, and we can't leave stuff there. It massively reduces flexibility.”

Long processing times in the UK

The lengthy processing times with customs at the Sevington Inland Border facility in Kent seem at odds with the experience on the French side of the tunnel. “At Sevington, you can be waiting for an hour while they process your bits of paper. On the other side, you have to check in with French customs and it only takes 10 to 15 minutes. It’s similar on the way back. Surely, post-Brexit, that would have been a good opportunity to rethink and streamline that process.”

“We have to go to the events, so you just put up with it. But it’s infuriating and it certainly doesn't put UK customs in a good light, when it takes them four times as long as it does in France,” Smith adds.

Three workarounds

Smith says there are workarounds for those who can’t face the hassle of customs requirements. “If you're going to trade shows, pay someone else to do it. If you're shipping goods to Europe, you can set up a distributor in the countries that you want to work in and get the stuff shipped from the factory to them.”

Alternatively, you can pay to use a bonded warehouse in the UK, or in Europe. The goods get shipped to that warehouse, and there is no VAT or customs duty payable on those goods until they leave that warehouse. “The bonded warehouse deals with the logistics. Spending two hours a day doing that is not a good use of our time. There's a value in paying other people to provide those services.”

On paper at least, under the Ex Works Incoterm (EXW), the buyer is responsible for all customs clearance, both export and import. This includes arranging and paying for all logistics and handling all customs documentation, fees, and taxes in both the exporting and importing countries. However, Smith warns that the reality is very different. Find more information on exporting and importing and Incoterms.

“Even if you're selling Ex Works, the people supplying the product usually end up organising the shipping, and it's the company receiving it that end up paying for it. Ex Works means you come and get it as soon as we sell it to you, but that's never the way it works.”