APHA – Border Trade Newsletter – getting it right at the border 5 06 25

In this newsletter:

1. Temporary unavailability of cloning feature in IPAFFS – 5 June 2025
2. BTMS system implementation – scheduled downtime on 12 June 2025
3. Planned downtime for Customs Declaration Service – 14-15 June 2025
4. Easement on medium-risk fruit and vegetables extended until 2027
5. Classical Swine Fever disease freedom: Bulgaria
6. UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary agreement
7. FMD – avoid processing delays at the border
8. Useful contacts and information

Please be advised that the cloning feature in IPAFFS will be unavailable on 5 June from 2pm to 5pm. During this period, all other functionality will remain unaffected.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding.

The new BTMS system is replacing the ALVS system and is currently being phased in.

As part of this transition, connectivity from CDS to BTMS will go live on Thursday 12 June 2025, with scheduled downtime between 3pm and 5pm. Traders may experience delays, CDS and IPAFFS declarations will be queued during the downtime period.

To avoid disruption, please submit declarations outside of the downtime window.

Avoid arriving between 3pm and 5pm as you may be held at the BCP pending clearance of Customs Hold. There is no need to contact the NCH—holds will lift automatically once connectivity resumes.

Thank you for your co-operation as we transition to the new system.

Due to scheduled maintenance, you will be unable to access the Customs Declaration Service from 9:30pm on Saturday 14 June 2025 to 6am on Sunday 15 June 2025.

Declarations submitted during this time will be processed when the service becomes available.

Creating, updating, or embarking a goods movement reference (GMR) during this time might be affected.

Only goods with pre-lodged declarations attached to a GMR will be allowed to move using Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS).

For guidance on GVMS, read Goods Vehicle Movement Service — service availability and issues.

For import movements using GVMS, you should check the declaration status and arrive where needed.

If moving consignments containing controlled goods with pre-lodged declarations, read the list of goods imported into Great Britain that are controlled. You should also attend port inspection facilities or inland border facilities for goods to be inspected and released.

Exports should have Permission to Progress (P2P) before travelling.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

The UK government recently announced plans to agree a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement with the EU, to make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier. This includes a commitment for the UK to keep our rules in line with the EU as part of a common SPS area. This planned agreement will facilitate the reduction of barriers to trade, including routine import checks on SPS goods moving between the UK and the EU (and vice versa).

During the implementation of the new BTOM import controls in 2024, an easement was placed on medium-risk fruit and vegetables imported into GB from the EU, Switzerland and Liechtenstein (CH&LI) to give businesses more time to prepare for incoming controls on medium-risk plants and plant products. This easement meant these goods were temporarily exempt from plant health controls.

The current easement on medium risk fruits and vegetables from the EU, CH and LI was due to end on 1st July 2025. However, under the planned SPS Agreement with the EU, these checks would not take place. Therefore, it has been agreed that the current easement should be temporarily extended to the end of the Transitional Staging Period (TSP) 31 January 2027.

Following an assessment, the United Kingdom has recognised Bulgaria’s disease-free status for Classical Swine Fever (CSF). Restrictions on the import to Great Britain from Bulgaria due to CSF are lifted from 30 May 2025 for:

• fresh porcine meat
• porcine meat products

Read the ‘fresh meat of ungulates’ and ‘meat products’ lists of EU and EFTA countries approved to export animals and animal products to Great Britain for more information.

Import restrictions relating to Bulgaria’s African swine fever status remain in place.

At the UK-EU summit on 19 May the UK and EU announced that we will agree a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement to make agrifood trade with our biggest market cheaper and easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers. The agreement will:

• Slash costs and red tape for businesses who export to and import from the EU, making supply chains more resilient.
• Reduce delays at the border, ensuring food flows without waste.
• Mean British produce – from sausages to shellfish – can be sold to the EU again.
• Make it easier to take pets on holiday to Europe.
• Make it easier to move goods across the Irish Sea, so Northern Ireland can enjoy the same products as the rest of the UK.

You can see full details of the announcements here: UK/EU Summit – Key documentation – GOV.UK

We have agreed to move swiftly towards detailed negotiations and we want businesses to feel the benefit as soon as possible. We’re not putting an arbitrary deadline on negotiations as it’s important that we get the right agreement. In the meantime, traders must comply with all existing requirements and controls, including export health certification and border target operating model (BTOM) measures. Customs and rules of origin requirements will not be included in this agreement and must also be complied with.

We will keep industry updated throughout and we look forward to continuing our engagement as we progress with negotiations.

We understand that enhanced controls for Hungarian, Slovakian and Austrian FMD-susceptible meat products, milk and milk products may present a challenge for traders, and we appreciate your cooperation and support for keeping Great Britain FMD-free.

The following are actions that you and/or your agent can take to help mitigate some of the most common causes of processing delays that we’re currently seeing at the border. Please pass to your agent for information.
1. Multiple CHEDs under the same MRN. 

Where a load or container consists of a mixed load or groupage, there is an increased risk that the SPS hold on the customs declaration will not be lifted if one or more of the consignments in the load requires an inspection.

Example: an agent or importer has correctly submitted 3 separate CHED import notifications in IPAFFS for 3 consignments in a vehicle’s load. All 3 are correctly recorded on the customs declaration in CDS.

Checking on IPAFFS, two of the consignments have been cleared as valid but one is still undergoing documentary checks and has not yet been cleared. An SPS hold is showing on the customs declaration in CDS.

Once all 3 CHEDS are cleared as valid by the Port Health Authority, the SPS hold is removed from the customs declaration and HMRC/Border Force can release the load if no further customs checks are required.

Action to take: Traders and their agents are asked to check the status of their consignments via IPAFFS and CDS and where necessary discuss options to minimise delays with the Port Health Authority/Local Authority (PHA/LA) at the point of entry. These may include devanning and separating the consignments. This is likely to require the resubmission of the customs declaration for the load.

2. Removal of consignments for inspections. 

If your supplier off-loads a particular consignment before it reaches Great Britain, and you or your agent cancels the accompanying CHED import notification in IPAFFS, it is important that you or your agent also amends the pre-lodged customs declaration in CDS to remove the relevant commodity codes and CHED reference number for the consignment. This also applies if you ask the PHA to cancel the CHED on your behalf.

Action to take: You or your agent should amend the customs declaration to remove any cancelled CHEDs. If the customs declaration is not amended, the SPS hold will persist because CDS is not able to access the inspection decision for the cancelled CHED.

Consignments will not be released until the customs declaration is amended and the SPS hold lifted. In exceptional cases where the CDS entry cannot be amended, the National Clearance Hub can issue a manual release. NCH will NOT release holds for any other reason.

3. Consignment remains under an SPS hold in CDS

Where a consignment is still under an SPS hold on CDS despite all SPS checks being complete and all CHEDs showing as valid on IPAFFS, this may be due to inconsistencies in data entry between the CHED import notification and the customs declaration.

Action to take: Traders and agents should check both submissions and amend as necessary. The most common errors include:

• the CHED reference number being incorrectly entered into CDS

• commodity codes not aligning

• non-English characters/text copied and pasted into CHED fields on IPAFFS.

• the final destination is not a recognised GB address / country code is not given as GB.

If you or your agent require further information on any of these actions, please contact the PHA at your consignments’ point of entry into GB.