Anyone who has operations or who wants to step into the Foreign Trade market needs to pay special attention to a series of precautions related to the legal requirements of each process.

To carry out imports or exports, Brazilian legislation requires an administrative procedure to be followed: Customs Clearance.

Have you seen how it works?

Let’s find it out in today’s text:

• What is customs clearance
• How important is it?
• Who does it?
• Import clearance
• Export clearance

What is customs clearance

Customs Clearance is the legal procedure required by the Brazilian Customs Authority where all information concerning the imported or exported goods is properly checked by the Brazilian Customs.

Some of the information to be reported at Customs Clearance include:

• Tax classification of the goods.
• International documentation.
• Tax collection during the process.
• The AFRMM payment, which is a tax paid to the Merchant Navy on goods imported by sea.
• Amounts, quantity and specifics of the merchandise.

In other words, customs clearance is the imports’ formal registration with the Federal Revenue Service, from where the Import Declaration (the DI / DUIMP) is issued.

Clearance, then, is an information given by Customs about what has been declared in comparison to the legal requirements applicable to such imported product.

This entire clearance procedure is carried out through the Siscomex Portal, which is the platform on which all foreign trade operations are carried out in Brazil.

Once the Federal Revenue has analyzed every given information by the importing/exporting company, each process is framed in one of the available parameterization channels, in order define what measures will be necessary for the international operation sequence.

Parameterization Channels

Being categories represented by colors – green, yellow, red and gray –, the parameterization channels determine the type of conference that will be necessary so that the cargo in question can actually be released.

In the green channel, there is an automatic import/export clearance, and the entire conference process is based on digital control and inspection parameters.

In the yellow channel, a documentary check of the imported goods is necessary, based on different parameters established by the Customs Authority.

In the red channel, the type of inspection required becomes a little stricter. Accordingly, the cargo is submitted to a federal inspector who will carry out a documentary and physical verification of the imported goods.

The gray channel indicates that, on the part of the Customs authorities, there is greater evidence of irregularities concerning the declared good, thus, documentary and physical inspection are required, in addition to the necessity to carry out special procedures to verify the reported amounts throughout any documentation to be relevant for the operation.

How important is it?

Customs clearance has its importance linked to the security and control of goods that leave and arrive our country.

It is through Customs Clearance that the safety of operations is guarantee, by means of a data analytical control and a physical attributes of the goods.

Clearance also allows important tax information for the Brazilian economy to be verified and all taxes to be duly collected.

Who does it?

Customs Clearance is always carried out by the company which is also taking care the formal import or export of the goods.

As a legal issue, in Brazil, the Customs Clearance procedure is carried out by a qualified professional called Customs Broker.

The Custom Broker

The Customs Broker is responsible for legally representing importing and exporting companies before the Brazilian Federal Revenue Service and other international inspection bodies.

Hence, the Broker needs to have a vast know-how on customs, fiscal legislation, the agencies’ procedures, as well as a logistical and national and international economy knowledge. And there is much more!

To make it even clearer, it is the Broker who will ensure all the legal requirements that your imported/exported cargo requires are met within the established deadlines and at the lowest possible cost.

For a Customs Croker to be able to carry out the activity of dispatching goods with the Federal Revenue, a power of attorney is necessary, in order to stating them as the legal representative of that importing company.

Import clearance

After the formalization of the international purchase, there comes the international documents issuing and tax collection. In addition to taxes, there is a need to pay port or airport fees, and other costs such as the AFRMM mentioned before.

The Customs Croker issues the Import Declaration (or DUIMP) containing all the information related to the import.

Once all the documentation and taxes are paid, the DI is registered, and the Clearance then takes place.

The channel in which the load is parameterized determines the procedures adopted for the next step.

DUIMP and the New Import Process

The NPI

The New Import Process, called NPI, then became a profound revolution in the way import happens in Brazil.

It seeks to simplify and optimize import procedures through standardization, a systems integration, and the reduction of bureaucracy in processes that had hitherto been plastered.

The NPI is composed by some modules that work as steps to be followed when importing to Brazil.

Among NPI’s new modules are the Product Catalog, the DUIMP, the PCCE (Centralized Payment of Foreign Trade), the LPCO (Licenses, Permissions, Certificates and Other Documents) and the CCT (Cargo and Traffic Control).

DUIMP

The Single Import Declaration is the document that will replace the current DI (Import Declaration).

Among its main features, DUIMP presents itself as a solution to speed up Customs Clearance procedures, since it allows the import to be declared even before the arrival of the goods in Brazil.

In addition to that, the DUIMP makes it possible to provide other Licenses related to importation in parallel with the act of clearance, without one procedure having to wait for the conclusion of the other to occur, as has been the case until now.

Export Clearance

About export, after all the logistics arrangements for sending the cargo to the customs area where it will be internationalized by means of a Single Export Declaration, the administrative clearance procedures are then initiated.

Unlike imports, exports have few or almost no imports collected, as a way for the Federal Government to encourage the sending of remittances abroad.

The authorized Customs Broker then prepares the Single Export Declaration (DU-E) and submits it for approval.

After that, the (DU-E) is framed in one of the parameterization channels for the definition of the procedures to be required and go ahead with the cargo shipment.

If you have enjoyed knowing a little more about the subject, keep following our content here, and also know our foreign trade advisory services, our team of experts will show you how we can help your company to import and export with even more compliance and agility.