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The Local Clearance Procedure (L.C.P.) enables the entry of goods to be carried out at your premises and not at the customs office.

You are therefore in a position to customize your customs clearance procedures and to adapt them to your own specific needs, so as to save time and money.

Who may apply for the L.C.P.?

The procedure may be granted to traders and to customs brokers, either consolidators or warehouse-keepers, provided they meet the requirements of satisfactory financial standing and compliance with the revenue law, they have been entitled by Customs to payment facilities (deferred payment, conditional on the provision of security) when the goods are dutiable and or taxable, and their facilities enable Customs to carry out effective checks.

What are the benefits of the L.C.P.?

You will lodge all your Customs declarations with a single customs office, known as the "supervising office".

This clearance procedure may be combined with the customs procedures with economic impact (inward processing, processing under customs control, warehousing, temporary importation) and may be used to clear a vast majority of goods.

As far as imported goods are concerned, your premises will have to be designated as a "temporary storage facility" (the designation of such a facility is not required for export). You may unload the goods at your premises upon arrival, at any time of day or night. Prior notification to Customs of such arrival is not required for the unloading of unsealed consignments. Unloaded goods may be released after they have been entered in your records or on a standard customs declaration (SAD) and after a certain period of time (set in the authorization) has elapsed since the notification to the supervising office of their arrival.

Once you have been designated as an approved exporter, you will be able dispatch all goods (provided they are not subject to specific restrictions) at any time of day or night, as soon as they have been entered in your records or on a standard customs declaration (SAD). Prior notification of the release to the supervising office is not required.

How to apply for the L.C.P.?

After an audit carried out—free of charge— by Customs and on the basis of a contractual arrangement signed with the local collector of the supervising office, you will be provided with a customized customs clearance procedure. The contractual arrangement will spell out the clearance formalities:

• either an entry in your records, subsequently discharged by the submission of a "supplementary or recapitulative declaration" (refer to "the Simplified Clearance Procedure") for each entry. The goods may be entered in your records and the declaration may be filed electronically, with prior approval by Customs of the system and software used for this purpose;

• or the lodging with the supervising office of a standard customs declaration for each transaction (in the form of the"Single Administrative Document" or "SAD").