I was wondering if anyone was aware of these new regulations for sending abroad, which came in today?
Providing electronic customs data for items, looking up the individual tariff numbers for each item…finding the correct category…it’s a minefield, and appears to be a complete mystery to post office staff aswell!
https://www.royalmail.com/business/services/sending/international-data
what on earth is that about?..can’t I just take my parcels to the post office and hand them over the counter then?
It’s all to do with tariff codes for items being sent outside of the EU, and using electronic labels rather than the paper ones.
It really is a minefield, particularly choosing from the hundreds and hundreds of options for the correct tariff code for items.
does that apply to people like us? I have no idea what electronic labels even are…I have some customs forms that I stick on parcels to the US if I need them.
I don’t really understand what this is all about…any ideas?
I don’t understand it either. Perhaps somebody will. Come along and explain
I have changed all my postage to UK only for the time being until I get my head around it. It looks like the easiest way would be to use click and drop but again it appears we are being forced to go online! More hurdles for the small business owner!
I took a package to the post office today to post to the USA and it was just processed in the usual way.
That’s good to know. I’ve heard mention of it from sellers on the other side, and I’m not too bothered by having to fill out the tariff numbers (I am a bit lazy with my customs forms so tend to skip that and the weight), but I really don’t want to have to switch to a service like click and drop rather than simply taking a package to the post office and paying over the counter, but I haven’t seen any information about how it works with that.
I’m going to ask at the post office when I next send internationally - the staff are usually very helpful so I’m hoping they can clear things up!
Just been reading a post about this on FB - it would seem that the tariff codes are needed if you do Click and Drop but not if you take your parcel to the PO and buy postage there. Not sure whether this information is accurate but that seems to be what the general consensus is 
It just seems to be a minefield of conflicting information!
should be only for packages outside of EU at the moment. It is basically an online info about seller/receiver/goods/value etc. so the customs can be dealt with faster and they do not have to open packages to investigate what is in and what tariffs to use for custom charges. The normal sticker needs to be used too and has to contain the same info as the online form. If the sticker CN22 is too small (too many tariff numbers etc) you can use bigger CN23 sticker instead.
It should not apply for franking machine users at the moment I read somewhere.