Pre-departure declaration

Before goods leave the European Union's customs territory, you must submit a pre-departure declaration. This is not an independent declaration. You submit a pre-departure declaration by submitting one of these declarations:

• A Customs declaration (this is usually an export declaration)
• A re-export declaration
• An exit summary declaration

The information in the declaration is used by the Customs authorities to perform a risk analysis, primarily for security purposes.

Exit summary declaration (EXS)

There are situations in which you are not required to submit an export or re-export declaration. Such as for goods that are temporarily stored in a temporary storage area. In this case you submit a summary declaration before the goods exit.

Have you received an exemption for the summary declaration? If so, a re-export notification suffices.

More information?

You can read more about exit and the pre-departure declaration in the Customs Manual

• 23.00.00 Uitgaan (Exit) (only available in Dutch)