Customs

Cooperating with Customs

The growing e-commerce market means that an unprecedented number of parcels and small packages are being exchanged across borders, making seamless collaboration between Posts and Customs more necessary than ever. 

The UPU works actively with partners in the supply chain to keep mail moving across borders and ensure that these mail items reach their destination safely and on time.

WCO–UPU cooperation

One example of such cooperation is with the World Customs Organization (WCO): the WCO–UPU Contact Committee was established in 1964 at the Universal Postal Congress in Vienna as a means to collaborate on issues related to the clearance of postal items through customs. 

This joint committee develops procedures and publications to guide Post–Customs work at the national and international level. The two organizations also engage in joint capacity-building projects, organizing workshops on postal customs issues for developing countries.

UPU solutions

The Customs Declaration System (CDS), created by the UPU’s Postal Technology Centre, helps streamline customs clearance by allowing participating Posts and Customs to exchange advance data and calculate required duties and taxes.  

For packages sent, UPU regulations require Posts to share information about the sender, contents and value with customs authorities. This information used to be sent with packages by means of a paper form, but CDS now enables Posts to share this information via electronic data interchange (EDI) messaging before the package is sent. This advance information can help Customs decrease its own processing times.

CDS also enables customs authorities to send EDI messages to Posts. For example, Customs can use the platform to notify Posts if an item has been rejected during the screening process. This, in turn, allows Posts to better track packages as they make their way through the supply chain.

Prohibitions (country specific)

According to the UPU's rules and regulations (Article 19 of the UPU Convention), certain items are either prohibited or restricted within the international mail flow. With the cooperation of its member countries, the UPU regularly updates its CDS country-specific list of prohibitions and restrictions, which serves as compendium for Article 19.1.3 of the UPU Convention.

Items not admitted (UPU)

The UPU also provides information about items that are not admitted in all categories of postal items, as well as dangerous goods (Articles 19.2 and 19.3 of the UPU Convention), under "Items not admitted". Finally, in this same section, historical information can be found (2007 List of Prohibited Articles).

Prohibitions repository supported by the Customs Declaration System (CDS) platform

The CDS Prohibitions Compendium is an online repository available to UPU member countries, supported by the Customs Declaration System (CDS) platform. Using this tool, national customs information on prohibited and restricted articles in the mail can be searched and updated, serving as compendium for Article 19.1.3 of the UPU Convention.

The system can be accessed, updated and queried at prohibitions.ptc.post.

UPU member countries requiring further information on and access to the system should contact: customs(at)upu.int.

The Prohibitions Search Tool, now available in Beta testing mode under the following link, queries this CDS Prohibitions Compendium.

The current content of the CDS list can be downloaded from this link.

With more items containing goods being sent through the Post, it is more vital than ever that designated operators have relevant, up-to-date information regarding country-specific customs procedures so they can inform their customers and facilitate the postal customs clearance process.

For this reason, the UPU has launched the UPU Customs Compendium — a living, online publication that contains public, country-specific information about:

1. Import processing of customs duties and postal charges
2. Delivery of taxable/dutiable items
3. Other agencies responsible for customs clearance of postal items
4. Questions relating to customs declarations
5. Miscellaneous information

UPU member countries are invited to fill in the UPU Customs Compendium questionnaire and to keep their information updated.

Editors from UPU member countries may request rights to access the questionnaire sending an email to customs(at)upu.int indicating the proposed editor's:

• Given name and family name
• Title or function
• E-mail address
• Phone number
• Entity
• Country

To access the system: customs.upu.post