Journal

The tool count on free tools goes from twenty-one to twenty-five, and a new picker at the top of that page answers "which tool do I need?" in one question. New: the EORI number check, which verifies the structure of any customs number in the browser (issuing country, EU character and length rule, the GB and XI UK variants) and hands off to the official EU and UK registries for the live answer; the SVHC substance check, which maps what a product is made of to the substance groups to search on the live REACH Candidate List, with the three duties that switch on above 0.1% (Article 33, the 45-day consumer answer, SCIP) -- deliberately without copying the ECHA database, whose terms of use forbid it; the dual-use and export control check, a keyword triage over the ten Annex I categories built for importers, because returns, repairs, samples and e-mailed software are exports too; and the binding tariff information guide with a calculator for what a wrong goods code costs per year -- applying for a BTI is currently free of charge, verified today. All four are linked from the tool strip on every page.

Seven category guides are now linked from product rules by category: toys, electronics, cosmetics, clothing and textiles, furniture and wood, medical devices and food supplements, plus a battery inside a package, where three regimes land on one shipment. The country pages grew from two to sixteen and now sit behind one front door, alongside the UK page: export to the EU. The matrix sets category against country of origin on one grid.

Free tools lists every calculator and checker on this site, each with what it deliberately does not do; every page is the flat index of everything published here. New alongside them: fifteen common importer mistakes and VAT rates per member state. On the sanctions side, all the sanctions lists, country by country explains which lists exist and which ones the free check searches, and what to do now is for the case where the hit comes after the trade rather than before it. The core questions are also answered in sixteen more languages, from the language bar at the top of every page.

There was no way to reach us from any page except the home page, and nothing in the menu said “contact”. There is now a contact page that says what to write about; a question about your own import, a correction, a listing, press; and what happens to what you send. Corrections are the one we want most: name the page and quote the sentence, and the fix is made with the source noted and the date updated.

New tools, all free and all running in your own browser. Read your goods code: paste it and see which layer it is, which chapter it sits in, whether that chapter appears in the CBAM or deforestation annexes, and open it in TARIC. Is there an agreement with my supplier’s country: the state of play per country and what you must hold to claim the lower rate. Which Incoterm fits: three questions, plus all eleven side by side including the insurance column almost everyone skims. Which register do I need: a country or a VAT number is enough. And the GPSR checklist now counts, remembers your ticks and tells you what is still open.

Each country page now answers the question that decides the duty: is there an agreement, what is its state, and what must you hold to claim it. Notably EU–Mercosur, provisionally applied since 1 May 2026, Bangladesh’s LDC graduation in November 2026, and GSP+ no longer being automatic from 1 January 2027; all three now also in the calendar, which carries a verification date per entry rather than one date for the whole page.

New: verify your counterparty; a VIES VAT check and the multi-list sanctions screen in one flow (no competitor combines them), and a glossary of 24 import-rule terms, defined in two sentences each.

New: CO₂ of your shipment (GLEC/DEFRA factors, mode-switch savings) and the import duty & VAT calculator (you bring the TARIC rate, we do the arithmetic). The site now has a complete dark palette; light remains default; and a subtle engineering-paper grid in the background.

New page: the EU Deforestation Regulation; the seven commodities, the twice-delayed dates (30 December 2026 and 30 June 2027), plot geolocation, and why the delay is the window to collect supplier data.

The questions hub gained a sanctions cluster: screening counterparties against the official EU sanctions lists is a legal duty, and violations are economic offences. The journal is now also available as an RSS feed, and the Chinese page answers the three questions Chinese sellers ask most.

Added Selling into the UK (Great Britain keeps its 2005 regime, Northern Ireland follows the EU one under the Windsor Framework), a questions hub with 31 questions in the phrasings buyers actually use, and a facts page; every number on it dated and sourced, including our own AI-visibility measurements.

Buyers ask "what does an EU responsible person cost" more than almost anything else, and we didn't answer it. Now we do: €200–800 per year, and what moves the price. Also added: whether a UK company can take the role (it cannot).

The same EU rules, asked the way sellers from Shanghai or Mumbai ask them: from China (including AliExpress and Temu) and from India (including why IEC and GST do nothing for the EU side).

First full measurement over the buyer questions we cover: eleven of twelve EU authorised-representative providers are not named in any of them; three providers take nearly all top positions. Method and example: example report.

A guide to EU product rules for importers; GPSR, REACH, EPR, CBAM, waste shipments; where every answer states the regulation, the article and the date it was last checked. Plus an editorial, unpaid list of who can carry the rules out.