Due to international treaty and legislative reform, shipments outside the EU require a detailed description of package contents. Therefore, for example, US Customs and Border Protection will no longer allow shipments through if their contents are declared or described unclearly. Starting September 1, 2021, shipments will be returned to the original sender if the shipment description is insufficient.
In principle, courier companies try to determine the exact description of the shipment before delivery if it is incomplete. However, this is not possible with postal shipments. Postal shipments also cannot be modified after the order has been initiated, so in the future, special attention should be paid to describing the contents of these shipments.
Consider the following when shipping outside the EU
The following points are crucial to consider and check when making shipments outside the EU:
Fill in the shipment information and description in English
Add a detailed description of the goods e.g. "Men's cotton t-shirt" - just "gift", "spareparts", "shirt", "birthday present" is not enough, with these descriptions, the goods will most likely come back like a boomerang
Fill in weights per product if the shipment contains multiple items
Specify value for each product individually (value can never be €0)
Sign and date CN23 or proforma/commercial invoice
Country of origin in ISO format e.g. FI
You can also add a more specific customs code for the product (HS-tariff code, minimum 6 digits), which you can easily obtain from customs. The customs code facilitates the customs clearance process and delivery.
International shipments still effortless through Shipit
When making international shipments through Shipit, you can easily fill out and create necessary CN23 and proforma/commercial invoices for your shipments with just a few fields. So nothing essential will be left unfilled, but remember to add accurate shipment descriptions and fill in the fields in English, so packages will reach their destination!
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