Guidance

Check if you can use transit to move goods to the EU and Common Transit Convention countries

How transit can help you move goods through customs and where you can use transit to move goods to.

• From: HM Revenue & Customs
• Published: 30 June 2020
• Last updated: 19 January 2023 — See all updates

Transit is a customs procedure that can help you move goods between:

• the UK
• the EU
• other Common Transit Convention countries

You can move goods under transit by air, rail, road or sea.

How transit helps you move goods

Using transit can help you:

• move your goods quickly
• reduce the number of full import or export declarations you’ll need to complete

When moving goods under transit you can delay:

• completing full import or export declarations on goods until they end their transit movement
• paying customs duties and other charges on the goods until they end their transit movement

This is because:

• full import or export declarations and duties are not required at each border crossing as the goods are under duty suspense
• you can complete some customs processes away from the border at either:
  • an office of departure or destination
  • your own premises, if you’re an authorised consignor or consignee

Where you can move goods to

You can move goods to or through Common Transit Convention countries.

The UK is a member of the Common Transit Convention.

The other members are:

• the EU (including the EU special territories where customs rules apply (European Commission website))
• Iceland
• Liechtenstein
• Republic of North Macedonia
• Norway
• Serbia
• Switzerland
• Turkey
• Ukraine

If your goods are going by road to, or through, a country which is not part of the Common Transit Convention

You may be able to use Transport Internationaux Routiers (TIR) to move your goods to countries which are part of the TIR convention. You can find out more about TIR on the European Commission website.

Using transit to move your goods

You can get someone to deal with customs movements for you.

If you want to handle your own transit movements

Find out how to set up your business to move goods out of the UK using transit.

Other ways you can move goods under duty suspense

You may be able to move goods under duty suspense:

• out of the UK to the EU for processing or repair under inward processing
• temporarily out of the UK without altering them under Temporary Admission
• between customs warehouses in the UK

Get help with transit

Contact HMRC to get help with imports and exports.

Published 30 June 2020
Last updated 19 January 2023 + show all updates

1. 19 January 2023

   A list of countries in the Common Transit Convention has been added. Guidance on Union goods, non-Union goods and duty suspense has been moved to 'Preparing to move your goods out of Great Britain using transit' and 'Preparing to move your goods out of Northern Ireland using transit'. The section covering 'Types of transit procedure' has been removed.

2. 28 June 2021

   Information about type of goods you can move using each transit procedure has been updated.

3. 31 December 2020

   This page has been updated because the Brexit transition period has ended.

4. 7 December 2020

   This guidance has been updated to explain what you need to do if you are using transit from 1 January 2021.

5. 30 June 2020

   First published.