![\"null\"](\"http:\/\/micro-trike.co.uk\/images\/voyage35.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt left Valencia yesterday at 11.23 am and was scheduled to dock in Barcelona at 06.00 am this morning. I think the reason why it’s still waiting offshore is because as shown below, the area of the port at Barcelona that handles containers appears to be quite small and it’s possibly a bit too congested at the moment to allow the CMA CGM Cedrus to enter.<\/p>\n
But that’s the least of my concerns. My main problem at the moment is French Customs. Before I even ordered my excavator I made enquiries as long ago as last summer about the formalities and procedures of bringing in an excavator from China. I was assured that I could handle everything myself without the need for an agent and was advised what duty and tax would be involved. All that was left, therefore, was to discover the mechanics of actually making the customs declaration itself, which as the owner of the goods I am entitled to do.<\/p>\n And that’s what I’ve been trying to do. I have an account on the French Customs’ web site and have searched all over it to find a link allowing me to make an on line customs declaration but without success. I can find lots of links telling me all about the relevant legislation in which I have absolutely no interest. All I want to do is actually make an actual declaration but a link for that I cannot find.<\/p>\n So I re-contacted French Customs with the relevant information about my purchase but instead of someone just providing me with a link I’ve got more irrelevant general information, mainly about the legislation. I’ve then been fobbed off and told to contact another office, only to get the same treatment all over again on doing so. And so it has gone on. For weeks.<\/p>\n It’s almost as though they’re trying to prevent me making the declaration myself. The most useless and rubbish reply I’ve received was a curt instruction to ‘get an agent who would arrange for all of the duties and taxes to be paid’. And this after I’d explained that (a) the customs reference under which the excavator has been shipped is non-dutiable ie no import duty is payable and (b) as a private buyer I have already paid 20% VAT at time of purchase, as required under the French tax regulations ie no TVA is payable either.<\/p>\n So no further payments should be due on importation of my excavator, meaning that the filing of a customs declaration for it should be relatively simple and straightforward. I’ll continue grappling with customs this week but time is now becoming much more pressing as the excavator will arrive in Marseille on 04 March and be available for ‘de-porting’ on around 07 March. <\/p>\n I’ve been given another office to contact which I will do tomorrow and this time I’ll just demand the necessary forms so I can file a paper declaration. And if I get nowhere with that I’ll find out where the closest French Customs office is and go there in person during the week. And that still leaves the logistics of picking up the machine from the port to be resolved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I type this on Sunday morning, the CMA CGM Cedrus that’s bringing my excavator to Marseille is standing off Barcelona, its last port of call before arriving in Marseille. It left Valencia yesterday at 11.23 am and was scheduled to dock in Barcelona at 06.00 am this morning. I think the reason why it’s … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24133"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24146,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24133\/revisions\/24146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.micro-trike.co.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n