Reasons for delayed customs clearance of goods

1. Reasons for the goods themselves

(1) The goods are prohibited from entering the country: Countries around the world have their own prohibited goods, such as drugs, firearms, ammunition, weapons, etc., which are well-known to everyone and are all prohibited from entering the country. Animals, plants, meat, and books are almost banned from entering every country; The United States prohibits the entry of Chinese herbal medicine; The UK prohibits the entry of dairy and meat products; Singapore prohibits the entry of electronic cigarettes; Goods that are prohibited from entering the country will be detained or directly returned by the customs upon arrival at the destination country

(2) The goods are branded and infringing products: protected by intellectual property rights, when you sell products, you must have brand authorization. After these products enter the country, customs will require a brand authorization letter. If not, customs clearance will be delayed, customs will detain the goods, and even order them to be returned directly.

(3) The goods are sensitive goods such as powders, liquids, and charged materials: It is important to understand that sensitive goods such as powders, liquids, charged materials with magnetism, and solids have a higher probability of being inspected by customs than regular goods, and the clearance time is longer. These products are generally delayed during customs clearance. It is recommended that sellers ask the recipient whether they have the ability to clear customs before sending these products.

2. Reasons attributable to the agent or shipper themselves

(1) The complete information of the goods is not filled in in a standardized and complete manner: the agent or the shipper themselves do not fill in the information and documents completely, such as incorrect product quantity, random product name writing (such as shoes, declared product name writing clothes), and the declared value does not match the actual value of the goods (many sellers have done this practice, reporting the declared value of the goods lower in order to reduce or exempt the recipient from paying taxes, but if it is too low, it will attract the attention of customs and cause customs clearance delays). If the commercial invoice is incomplete, the sender needs to provide a new and complete commercial invoice.

(2) Logistics transportation method: In order to save shipping costs and earn the difference in shipping costs for the recipient, the seller chooses a logistics transportation channel that is cheaper in price and has a longer transportation time. The cheaper the price, the longer the transportation time, the slower the customs processing speed, and the more likely the goods are to be lost.

3. Customs reasons

(1) Customs routine inspection: Customs conducts spot checks on goods. If your goods are found, you can only wait and do not need any assistance from the recipient. The routine inspection usually takes 1-3 working days to complete. If the customs deems that the goods are in good condition, they will be released.

(2) Taxation: Customs believes that the declared value of your goods does not match the actual value, and the recipient needs to clear customs. If your declared value matches the value of the goods, but the customs consider it different, you can use the value certificate of the goods to clear customs. If the declared value of your goods does not match the actual value, is underreported or overstated, and is detected by customs, the recipient will need to pay the customs duties.

(3) Black Customs: Some countries and regions have relatively black customs. In order to make money, even if your goods have no problems, they will still levy taxes on you, but they will not clear customs for you until you have paid the taxes.

4. Reason for recipient

(1) Not willing to pay taxes: The goods need to be taxed, and the taxes are too high or exceed the value of the goods themselves. The recipient is unwilling to pay the high taxes and does not go through customs clearance. The goods are stored at the customs, and after the customs clearance deadline, they are auctioned off or returned by the customs.

(2) The recipient does not have relevant documents: for example, if the recipient does not have an import license, the recipient cannot provide the required customs clearance documents, resulting in delayed clearance of the goods.

(3) Scammer buyers: Some scammer buyers abroad intentionally do not clear customs or pay taxes in order to obtain goods for free, leaving the goods untouched and then dealing with the seller over tax issues. Or they may not sign for the goods because they know that the return shipping cost is very expensive, and the sender is unwilling to return them. The recipient informs the sender to return the goods, which gives them reason to demand free delivery of the goods. Or you can buy multiple products at once and choose the logistics transportation of the small package series. As we all know, small package transportation is slow, logistics information updates are slow, or even there is no information. Even if a scammer buyer receives the goods, they can inform the sender that they have not received them and request a refund.

5. Other reasons

(1) Environment: such as customs strikes, port worker strikes, airport worker strikes, logistics personnel strikes; Or the occurrence of natural disasters or wars.

(2) Policy: Some countries have slow customs clearance speed, slow clearance efficiency, and complicated clearance procedures, such as Brazil. Or corresponding national policies require how customs clearance must be cleared and how it must be cleared.