A book for 150 kroner in a Danish bookstore can end up costing considerably more when it has to be sent directly to the customer in Greenland. It is not necessarily the weight of the book or the transport distance that explains the price difference, because there may also be costs for documentation and customs processing.
Although Greenland and Denmark are part of the same Commonwealth, Greenland lies outside the EU’s customs territory. Therefore, goods sent from Denmark to Greenland must be treated as exports from the EU.
A book for 150 kroner in a Danish bookstore can end up costing considerably more when it has to be sent directly to the customer in Greenland. It is not necessarily the weight of the book or the transport distance that explains the price difference, because there may also be costs for documentation and customs processing.
Although Greenland and Denmark are part of the same Commonwealth, Greenland lies outside the EU’s customs territory. Therefore, goods sent from Denmark to Greenland must be treated as exports from the EU.
– Yes, it is basically the price for standing outside the EU’s customs area, explains Carsten Willemoes Jørgensen, who has a Ph.D. and lecturer in customs law at Aarhus University, and elaborates on:
– Because when goods have to cross the border between the EU and a country outside, there are a number of requirements for documentation and administration, which can make the shipments both difficult and expensive,
The paperwork costs
When a company sends a product to Greenland, it must be disclosed, among other things, what the package contains and what the product is worth. It requires work, and the expense is often added to the price the customer pays.
– It does not necessarily take less time to fill in the customs papers because the goods are cheap. The work can be largely the same, regardless of whether the package contains a book for 150 kroner or an expensive electronic item. Therefore, the administrative costs become relatively large when the value of the goods is modest, explains Carsten Willemoes Jørgensen and at the same time emphasizes that there is a difference between actual customs duties and the fees that companies and carriers charge to handle a shipment. He continues:
– Even if no duty is payable on an item, there may still be costs for the administrative processing of the shipment. It is often these costs that make it relatively expensive to send relatively cheap goods from Denmark to Greenland.
An heirloom that was never repaired
A citizen in Greenland, who wishes to remain anonymous, experienced how complicated the rules can be when he wanted to send a more than 100-year-old watch to a watchmaker in Denmark.
The watch had been passed down through the family and had great sentimental value. It was neither to be sold nor handed over to others, but simply repaired and then sent back to the owner.
However, the shipment stalled because an invoice, information about the watch’s value and a registration number were requested. It was not straightforward to obtain an invoice for an heirloom that had been in the family’s possession for generations, nor was it simple to determine what the watch was actually worth.
In the end, the owner had to give up and the watch was sent back to Greenland without having been repaired.
Carsten Willemoes Jørgensen has not investigated the specific case and therefore cannot determine what went wrong. But he points out that there are special customs procedures for goods that are temporarily imported into the EU for the purpose of repair.
– When an item is sent to Denmark to be repaired and then has to be returned to the owner outside the EU, it is not necessarily an ordinary import. There are special procedures for just that situation, but it is crucial that the shipment is registered correctly from the start.
A possible explanation is therefore that the watch was processed following an incorrect customs procedure.
Who is responsible?
According to Carsten Willemoes Jørgensen, the customs authorities must be able to identify the person or company who is the importer in Denmark and who is responsible for the shipment.
– Therefore, the authorities will request an importer registration number. This can cause problems for smaller companies that are not necessarily registered as importers or have experience with the special customs procedures that apply to goods from countries outside the EU.
At the same time, the item must be registered correctly in the customs system, which operates with thousands of different item codes.
– There are around 15,000 item codes, and therefore I also cannot deny that an error has occurred when the item code is determined by the carrier who must handle the shipment. Incorrect information in the customs declaration can affect how the goods are processed. In the worst case, this may result in the product not being able to be imported into the EU.
His recommendation is therefore to use a professional freight forwarder when valuable items are to be sent for repair in Denmark.
– Of course it costs something, but it can be worth the money to get help with the customs papers, so that you reduce the risk of the shipment coming to a standstill due to an error.
The watch from Japan took an expensive detour
The same citizen experienced another problem when he bought a watch from Japan. The Japanese dealer could not ship directly to Greenland, and therefore the watch was delivered to a family member in Denmark, who subsequently had to forward it.
On arrival in Denmark, however, customs duties were collected. Although the owner later documented that the watch had arrived in Greenland, the duty paid was not refunded.
Even in this case, Carsten Willemoes Jørgensen cannot assess what has actually happened without knowing the customs declarations. But he explains that there is a difference between whether a product is imported into Denmark as a normal import, or whether it is covered from the beginning by a procedure where it must be sent on out of the EU.
– If a product from Japan is imported to Denmark and enters general free circulation in the EU, customs duties will be charged. The fact that it is subsequently sent on to Greenland does not automatically mean that the customs duty will be refunded.
There are special customs procedures that allow you not to have to pay customs while the goods are in the EU, but the decisive factor is how the goods have been treated upon importation.
– If the product is always destined for Greenland, one should investigate the possibilities of allowing it to pass through the EU without being treated as an ordinary import to Denmark.
His most important advice is to research the customs procedure before an item is shipped. This applies in particular when items are to be repaired in Denmark, or when goods from countries outside the EU are to be sent to Greenland.
