Customs Glossary

A charge assessed by a pier or dock owner for handling incoming or outgoing cargo.

VAT Information Exchange System which was designed to prevent and deter abuse of the VAT zero-rating provisions for goods traded in the EU from 1st. January 1993. An integral part of the VIES arrangements is a requirement that each Member State must store and process specific information which it collects from its traders about their trade with other Member States.

The ultimate consignee is the person located abroad who is the true party in interest, receiving the export for the designated end-use.

Transshipment refers to the act of sending an exported product through an intermediate country before routing it to the country intended to be its final destination.

Document facilitating transit by serving both as a customs declaration and as a guarantee in countries that are a contracting party to the TIR Convention (OJ 1978 No L 252, p.1).

Terminal Handling Charge (container handling costs)

A tax assessed by a government in accordance with its tariff schedule on goods as they enter (or leave) a country. May be imposed to protect domestic industries from imported goods and/or to generate revenue. Types include ad valorem, specific, variable, or some combination.

Integrated tariff of the Community, held in a Commission database containing EC import and export measures applicable to specific goods, such as tariff suspensions, tariff quotas, tariff preferences, anti-dumping duties, quantitative restrictions, embargoes, export.

Shipper's Own Container

Shipping weight represents the gross weight in kilograms of shipments, including the weight of moisture content, wrappings, crates, boxes, and containers (other than cargo vans and similar substantial outer containers).