HM Customs are moving Exports from CHIEF to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) later this year, and have recently issued the below notice on what you can do NOW to prepare.

The full notice, which includes more about HMRC’s liaison with your software developer, can be found on our CDS resource page HERE.

Dear customer,

All export declarations are moving from our Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system to the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) by 30 November 2023.

What you can do now to prepare for CDS If your business submits export declarations only, you should now:

1. Apply for an Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) number beginning with ‘GB’.

2. Subscribe to the Customs Declaration Service so you will be able to submit export declarations from your software through CDS.

3. Read the latest CDS guidance on GOV.UK – including the CDS toolkit and Key differences between CHIEF and the CDS guidance and our introductory UK exports guide – to familiarise yourself with the Customs Declaration Service.

Doing this early will make sure you’re ready to move to CDS for exports. If you’ve already done this, you don’t need to do it again.