We have received a question regarding product test report compliance upon custom clearing and our compliance expert team gave answer. We share an extract of the Q&A here.

Hello, we are a furniture importer. We recently import furniture from China to Spain, the goods have arrived at the port of Barcelona. When we submitted the customs clearance documents, we find that the test report of the EN581 chair is out of date, then we asked the supplier to submit a valid report.

After the supplier submitted a valid report (they said they did a testing again at a Chinese lab), the Custom of Barcelona notified us that the EN1O22 chair test report also needs to be submitted again.

The supplier then submitted test reports of other similar chairs, which we forwarded to the custom. Then the customs notified us that the report cannot be verified, and the goods are required to be destroyed or returned.

We got confirmation from the supplier that they can resubmit a new report and modify the report. But the custom does not allow resubmission of documents. Do we have a workaround to solve this problem? We don’t want the products return to China. However, we understand that we cannot change the decision of the custom.

Answer from EU-REP-Service compliance expert team:

Furniture exported to Spain requires a product report to do custom clearing, and the report must be within the validity period and comply with the corresponding regulations of the product.

If you validate the reports carefully before you import, you will know the reports are expired, and ask your supplier to submit a new valid report. A new valid report in China should not be expensive and is quick to get.  Upon request of any EU custom, double check the documents you get from the supplier and do internal audit on the documents by yourself, and do not expect the supplier would know exactly the compliance details of an EU custom.

A compliant certificate can only be issued if there is a valid test report. As you submitted a new report within days and presumably, they just changed the date of the reporting as a copycat, this behavior of document submitting does not prove trustworthiness to any EU custom authority. Even you submit a new valid report for the exact product models to the original custom, nobody would take it as persuasive compliance proof.

The current problem is rather troublesome. What you can do is to reduce risk in terms of cost. You can internally align with the shipping company and supplier, arrange to send the goods to another port or to another country, this would avoid the total loss and higher cost of returning. And for the next custom clearing, please ensure the required documents are compliant.

What this shared story teaches us?

Before importing products to EU, ​​you must confirm and consult the customs requirements of the product. The simple way is to verify the product customs code in your country, consult the custom official website or contact their free service to inquire, they will give feedback how to do it.

Validate if the testing report and certificate is compliant. If you don’t know how to validate, our compliant expert team can help with a small service fee.

Not sure if the testing report or certificates you get from the supplier is compliant? Contact us to validate!