In general, an exporter, or an agent acting on his or her behalf, needs to fill an export declaration form and submit it to the Australian Customs to share information about the goods intended for export from the country. It is then that the Integrated Cargo System (ICS) of the Customs and Border Protection verifies the information and issues an export declaration number (EDN). To help you in this process, here are some important things about the export declaration that you should not miss.
How Many Declarations?
An exporter must file one export customs declaration per consignment. Now, a consignment is defined as goods one exporter (consignor) sends to one recipient (consignee) at one time. It means that if a consignor sends another consignment to the same consignee even within a short period of time, he or she must file a fresh declaration. It also means that if there is 1 consignor and ‘n’ number of consignees (even if their location is the same), the ‘n’ numbers of declarations must be filed.
Defining the Consignor
A consignor can be defined as the owner or exporter or the individual or company that possesses the goods to be exported. If an exporter hires an agent, then the agent would be counted as the consignor. If a person or company buys goods for the purpose of export, then that person or company becomes the consignor. In that case, the person or company is not eligible to act as a mere agent of the seller.
Export Audit
A shipper export declaration is examined as a part of the export audit carried out by the Customs. Apart from verifying the information presented in the declaration, the Customs may also demand a physical examination of the goods intended for export. Post-declaration compliance may also be executed in a number of export transactions.
Different from Waybills
An export declaration is different from waybill. While the former acts as evidence of the export transaction between the consignor and the consignee, the latter is evidence for the shipment contract between the consignor and the carrier. It means that if a consignment consists of multiple packages from one consignor to one consignee, there would be only one declaration even if there are multiple waybills.
You can file an export declaration to obtain customs declaration number electronically by registering with the ICS. For this, you would need an EXDOC software to communicate with ICS.
Export Documentation Software 