Quick answer: Since 1 January 2021, EU sales are exports. That means four compliance essentials: customs declarations on every consignment, proof of origin to claim zero duty under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, a resolved import VAT position in the EU, and a separate EU regulatory track for product compliance including CE marking and REACH. The 2025–26 UK–EU reset improves some of this. It does not remove customs paperwork.
Five years in, the manufacturers still struggling with EU trade are rarely the ones who didn’t know the rules changed. They are the ones who patched around the change shipment by shipment and never rebuilt the process.
Where this guide comes from: IndustrySpan works with industrial and engineering SMEs selling across the UK–EU border. The pattern is consistent — the compliance knowledge exists somewhere in the business, but it lives in one person’s head and breaks the moment they’re on holiday.
1. What actually changed
“We already have someone handling logistics, this isn’t the priority.”
It becomes the priority the day a container is held. Four structural changes underpin everything else:
The EU became a third country for customs. Every consignment now requires a customs declaration on export from GB and import into the EU, with a commodity code, a customs value and a declared origin. This is not a formality that a forwarder absorbs invisibly — the data they file is data you supply.
Zero duty became conditional. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement gives tariff-free access only to goods that meet its rules of origin. Goods that don’t qualify pay the standard MFN rate. Nothing about the TCA makes duty automatic.
Product regulation split into two tracks. The UK and EU regimes started identical and can now diverge. In practice divergence has been far more limited than expected — but the tracks are legally separate, and your obligations in each are separate.
VAT stopped being intra-community. Sales into the EU are now imports there, which raises a question that has to be answered per market: who is the importer of record, and does that create an EU VAT registration obligation for you?
2. Documentation and customs essentials
The document set is covered in depth in our export documentation checklist. The essentials specific to the post-Brexit relationship:
- EORI numbers. You need a GB EORI to export. Your EU customer needs an EU EORI to import. If you sell DDP, you will need an EU EORI yourself.
- Commodity codes. These drive duty, VAT and controls. The EU’s Combined Nomenclature is revised annually, with CN 2026 applying from 1 January 2026. A code set in 2021 deserves re-verification.
- Commercial invoice. The document customs checks everything else against. Goods description, HS code, value, currency, Incoterms rule and named place, country of origin.
- Proof of origin. Either a statement on origin in the prescribed TCA Annex ORIG-4 wording on the commercial invoice, or a EUR.1 movement certificate. Above €6,000 you need a REX reference to self-certify.
- Record retention. Keep origin evidence for at least four years. Origin audits happen long after the goods have shipped.
The rules-of-origin trap. Manufacturing in the UK does not automatically confer UK origin. Goods must be wholly obtained, or meet the product-specific rule for their HS heading in TCA Annex 3. An assembly built in Birmingham from predominantly third-country components may not qualify, and claiming preference you can’t substantiate is the mistake that produces retrospective duty bills plus penalties.
If you take one action from this section: pull your top ten export lines and confirm, in writing, which product-specific rule each one satisfies.
3. CE marking, UKCA and REACH — what transfers and what doesn’t
“Do our certifications transfer, or do we need new ones per market?”
CE marking still governs the EU market. To place a product on the EU market you need EU-compliant conformity assessment, an EU Declaration of Conformity and a technical file. Our step-by-step CE marking guide covers the full process.
The UK reversed course on UKCA — and many exporters haven’t noticed. In August 2023 the UK government announced an indefinite extension of CE marking recognition. The Product Safety and Metrology etc. (Amendment) Regulations 2024, made on 23 May 2024 and in force from 1 October 2024, gave that legal effect across 21 product regulations including machinery, radio equipment, toys, ecodesign and RoHS. Manufacturers can continue to use either CE or UKCA marking for those goods in Great Britain.
The same regulations added a voluntary fast-track UKCA route: meet the EU essential requirements, complete the EU conformity assessment procedures, and the corresponding GB requirements are treated as satisfied.
Excluded from the indefinite recognition — and still on sector-specific arrangements — are medical devices, construction products, marine equipment, rail products, cableways, transportable pressure equipment and unmanned aircraft systems.
The practical implication: for most industrial products, one EU-compliant technical file now serves both markets. If your business is still maintaining parallel UKCA documentation for a product in scope of those 21 regulations, that is recoverable cost.
REACH did not transfer. UK REACH and EU REACH are separate registration regimes. An EU REACH registration held by a UK entity ceased to be valid for EU market access; registrations had to be transferred to an EU entity or an Only Representative appointed. For manufacturers of articles rather than substances the obligations are lighter but not zero — notably substances of very high concern in articles, and the duty to communicate information down the supply chain. Northern Ireland remains under EU REACH.
4. VAT and the importer-of-record question
This is where Incoterms stop being an abstraction.
If you sell EXW or FCA, your EU customer imports the goods and handles import VAT and duty. Simple for you, but some buyers will refuse, and you must still obtain evidence of export to zero-rate the supply.
If you sell DDP, you are the importer of record in the destination country. That means an EU EORI, liability for import duty and import VAT, and in many member states a VAT registration or a fiscal representative. Manufacturers quote DDP to remove friction for the buyer and then discover a compliance footprint in five countries.
For most industrial SMEs, DAP is the pragmatic middle: you deliver to the named place, the buyer clears the goods.
Whichever you choose, apply it consistently. The number of disputes we see that trace back to a quotation saying DAP and an invoice saying DDP is not small.
5. What the UK–EU reset changes — and what it doesn’t
The Common Understanding agreed at the May 2025 summit committed both sides to a set of targeted agreements: a common sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) area, linking of emissions trading schemes, possible UK participation in the EU internal electricity market, and a youth experience scheme. Annual summits were agreed to drive progress.
Current state of play, as of writing:
- The UK government has indicated it intends to legislate by the end of 2026 to enable an SPS agreement, targeted to take effect around mid-2027.
- An SPS agreement would require dynamic alignment — UK rules following EU rules as they change.
- A review of the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement is due in 2026.
Be clear about the limits. An SPS agreement is not a customs agreement. Customs declarations remain. Rules of origin under the TCA are unaffected. For a manufacturer of machinery, components or engineered products, the reset changes very little about your day-to-day export obligations — the friction it targets is primarily agri-food.
Plan on the rules you have, not the rules you hope for. Timelines here have moved before.
6. A readiness checklist
Run this before the next quarter, not before the next shipment.
Structural – GB EORI confirmed; EU EORI if you ever sell DDP – Importer-of-record position decided per market, and matching the Incoterms rule you quote – EU VAT registration or fiscal representative in place where DDP is used – REACH position confirmed: registrations transferred or Only Representative appointed where relevant – Named internal owner for export compliance — not a shared inbox
Product – Top export lines checked against TCA Annex 3 product-specific rules, documented – Commodity codes re-verified against CN 2026 – EU Declaration of Conformity current for each product family – Technical files retained and retrievable — ten years from last placing on the market – UKCA duplication reviewed and eliminated where the product is in scope of indefinite CE recognition
Process – Per-shipment document checklist that a non-specialist can execute – Origin evidence filed and retained for four years – Annual review diarised for standards withdrawal, CN changes and CBAM scope
Free download — EU Export Readiness Checklist. The full version, including the questions to ask your forwarder before you appoint them. Request the checklist.
Frequently asked questions
What documentation do we need per EU country? The customs set is uniform across the EU — invoice, packing list, declaration, transport document, proof of origin. Country-level differences appear in VAT registration and reporting, language requirements for instructions and safety data sheets, and packaging or EPR registrations.
Do our certifications transfer across the EU? Within the EU, yes — a CE-marked product can be placed on the market in any member state. Between the UK and EU the regimes are legally separate, though the UK’s indefinite recognition of CE marking for 21 product regulations means one EU-compliant file usually serves both markets in practice.
Do we need a local entity or VAT registration to sell into the EU? Not to sell. You may need a VAT registration or fiscal representative if you act as importer of record — which is what selling DDP makes you. Selling DAP or FCA usually avoids it. A local legal entity is a commercial decision about market presence, not a customs requirement.
Has the UK–EU reset removed customs checks? No. The proposed SPS agreement targets agri-food friction and would require UK dynamic alignment with EU rules. Customs declarations and rules of origin are unchanged by it.
How do we start exporting to Germany specifically? Same customs framework as the rest of the EU, but German buyers expect German-language documentation and instructions, and the industrial buying culture is relationship-led and specification-heavy. Expect longer qualification and more technical scrutiny before price is discussed. Route to market matters as much as compliance — see how to find and appoint industrial distributors abroad.
Stop patching, start systemising
Post-Brexit export compliance is not difficult. It is detailed, and detail decays when nobody owns it. The businesses that still have problems in 2026 are usually the ones where export knowledge never got written down.
IndustrySpan helps industrial manufacturers rebuild export as a documented, repeatable process — so it survives a resignation.
Book a free export-readiness audit →
Related reading: Export Documentation Checklist for Selling Into the EU · How to Get CE Marking · How to Find & Appoint Industrial Distributors Abroad · Our services
Sources cited
- House of Commons Library — The 2026 review of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the UK–EU reset
- GOV.UK — UK Government announces extension of CE mark recognition for businesses
- European Commission — Proof of origin
- European Commission — Access2Markets
- Hogan Lovells — CE marking to remain indefinitely recognised in the UK