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Transit, directly without transshipment or with transshipment

A declaration for the transit customs-approved treatment must be submitted for goods intended to be transported abroad. ‘Abroad’ must in this case be define as outside of Bonaira, Saba, or Saint Eustatius. These concern goods ‘under customs supervision’.

In practice

In practice, this means that the return is filed for goods located in:

  • a space for temporary storage;
  • a customs warehouse;
  • a trade and service warehouse.

Transit, directly or with transshipment

  • ‘Directly’ means that the goods are loaded directly into the departing means of transport from the storage facility (which will usually be a space for temporary storage).
  • ‘With transshipment’ means that the goods are loaded into a means of transport at the storage facility and are transported on the public roads to the departing means of transport. The goods are transshipped to the departing means of transport at this location. Departing storage can also take place in a space for temporary storage (STS).

Example: A shipment of goods is stored on Bonaire in the customs warehouse of manager X. The shipment is intended for a customer established on Curaçao and will be transported there by plane.

A transit customs declaration is submitted to Customs for the transshipment of the shipment from the customs warehouse of manager X to Bonaire International Airport (BIA).

Once Customs has handled the request and has given permission for removing the goods from the customs warehouse, the shipment can be transported to the airport (BIA).

The carrier will report to Customs at the airport upon arrival. The goods are loaded directly into the departing aircraft at the airport. The aircraft may potentially not be present yet. In this case, the goods can be kept in a space for temporary storage (STS) pending the arrival of the aircraft. This is the so-called outgoing storage.

Particularities concerning the transport of goods with the transit customs-approved treatment

The following particularities apply:

  • Douane Caribisch Nederland will determine whether the transport must take place in an open or closed capacity. ‘Closed’ means that the transport on land must take place with a customs seal. This properly safeguards the identity of the goods during the transport. If the goods are transferred to a departing means of transport from an ‘open customs warehouse’, the transport to this departing means of transport may usually take place in an open capacity (without a customs seal).
  • A deposit must have been provided for the import excise duties due if the goods will have an import customs-approved treatment, by way of deviation from the submitted declaration;
  • A document for which discharge must be granted for the obligations (a document is issued based on the declaration). This means that the document will remain ‘open’ at Customs as long as the goods have not left the island. Douane Caribisch Nederland will carefully monitor the shipment both physically and administratively. The export clearance declaration must list these goods and the associated customs document.

Supplying ships and aircraft

Ships and aircraft ready to depart for abroad can be supplied with provisions (food and drinks), ship consumables, fuels, and lubricants. This will be considered a situation of transit if the goods in question are taken from a customs warehouse or a trade and service warehouse.

Claiming the transit customs-approved treatment

The codes you have entered in fields 1 and 37 of your customs declaration show that you claim this customs-approved treatment. These codes can be found in the Single Document Manual.