Traders Warned to Prepare for Delays as UK Customs Migrates Processing Software to a New Service Provider
Agency Sector Management (ASM) is reminding agents that CHIEF, HMRC’s computerised system which facilitates the efficient passage of legitimate goods into and out of the United Kingdom, will be off-line for part of the weekend as it is migrating from BT to a new service provider - Capgemini.
London, United Kingdom, January 20, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Peter MacSwiney, Chairman of ASM, the UK’s leading developer and supplier of customs processing software solutions, says: “It is very important that agents, whether ASM customers or not, realise that CHIEF will be unavailable from 00:01hrs on Sunday 17th January 2010 for an estimated eight hours, which could extend to a maximum of 12 hours if needed. During this downtime, agents will be unable to submit customs declarations and other messages to CHIEF.
“Our original belief was that fallback would be automatically invoked as the system will be unavailable for more than six hours and the Charter Standard calls for fallback in these circumstances.
“However, whilst some fallback arrangements have been put in place, the impact on trade could be substantial and a significant build up of uncleared goods, both imports and exports, is quite possible.
“Those involved in international import and export are best advised to keep everything crossed that CHIEF is online again by 08.00am on Sunday.”
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Note to editors: Customs Handling of Import/Export Freight (CHIEF) facilitates the efficient passage of legitimate goods into and out of the United Kingdom.
“Our original belief was that fallback would be automatically invoked as the system will be unavailable for more than six hours and the Charter Standard calls for fallback in these circumstances.
“However, whilst some fallback arrangements have been put in place, the impact on trade could be substantial and a significant build up of uncleared goods, both imports and exports, is quite possible.
“Those involved in international import and export are best advised to keep everything crossed that CHIEF is online again by 08.00am on Sunday.”
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Note to editors: Customs Handling of Import/Export Freight (CHIEF) facilitates the efficient passage of legitimate goods into and out of the United Kingdom.
Contact
Agency Sector Management (UK) Ltd
Ian Matheson
+44 (0)1689 860660
Ian Matheson
+44 (0)1689 860660
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