Not neccessarily horror stories

[Paul Martin]

Hi All,

 

My wife is currently in Law School and writing papers on various subjects. As part of one of her subjects, she would like to hear about how everyone's experience with shipping in and out of Great Britain has been since the implementation of the new laws. For example, waiting times, customs lack of knowledge, damage, refusal, etc, etc. Also, if you would like to comment how the law has effected you in general. Not just bad stories, good stories too, but mainly before and after comparisons.

 

Just looking for personal stories. Not trying to create a long thread criticizing customs or ebay and so forth. Just the facts please! Including any solutions that were accomplished (if any).

 

Best

[RobertM]

Hi all,

 

Ive imported a few swords from the US to the UK without any issues. Normally have to stump up a little duty, however i was always under the impression that antiques were exempt? Theres no way to release your item without paying and if you dispute its likely going to take ages to resolve. Apart from that its all ok.

 

Rob M

[IanB]

Paul, Allow me to wish you the very best for the Festive Season.

I too have imported several swords since the imposition of the ban, the first being very soon after implementation. It was clear that this law was enacted with little or no guidance being given to HM Revenue and Customs, their first communication with me suggesting they were quite uncertain as to how to proceed. As expected by sword was impounded and declared to be a 'prohibited weapon', an assumption that is still implied on their standard letter. My approach was write assuring them that I was a bone fide collector, quoting the fact that I had written books, and that I was a curator at the Royal Armouries. I was also able to provide them with the eBay seller's description that the sword dated from the Edo period, including a photocopy from a textbook showing this era ended in the 19th century and establishing the fact the sword was antique. This they accepted and duly released the sword. Subsequent imports have been handled by me in the same way and have been released without any fuss. I suspect they keep a database of importers they have checked out. They do have a tendency to accept a sword as antique, then charge the full import duty on it rather than the 5% it should incur. However, when you point this out, they do correct the error and refund the money in due course. I suspect this arises because there are two separate departments involved.

Ian Bottomley

[Paul Martin]

Hi Guys,

 

Thanks for the responses, please keep them coming. Please can you give us some idea of the before and after the law was implemented comparison as well please.

 

Thanks Ian, Seasons greetings to you too.

 

Best

[Kevin]

Before - no problem. Afterwards? Well, I talk to lots of folk and have been asked to help with Customs on more than a few occasions, so the following draws on a lot of people's experiences.

 

As one Customs officer said to me, all swords tend to be detained and assumed to be prohibited, just in case someone makes an error in letting a prohibited one through. To my certain knowledge of more than a few cases, that's even if it has just returned from shinsa with origami, the correct tariff codes and the correct export paperwork. Well, it may have the correct paperwork but it is in Japanese and it looks as if Customs can't be bothered to know what the correct paperwork looks like, let alone translate it - they regard it as your job to prove that it is exempt. Ditto correct tariff codes - they'll still detain it. It can take up to a month before they release it. As they admit, in the vast majority of cases it is a paper exercise that has little point to it, other than to consume a lot of various officers' time in answering responses and processing the sword, and thus consuming bits of HMIRC's budget to no good end. As one officer said to me, it's a waste of resources that could be more usefully spent elsewhere. Meantime the manufacturers of the swords that the legislation was aimed at retooled to make them straight for the British market, and thus exempt, so they go sailing through. Customs know this - they've remarked on it. The only swords that get impeded are therefore exempt swords over 50 cm in close on 100% of cases.

 

Customs are pretty hamstrung by knowing nothing about swords and not being allowed to inspect them thoroughly. They also don't have experts on tap to examine the swords. They do know that traditional swords have hamon - however swords showing hamon will still be routinely detained and the recipients asked to prove that they are exempt. What Customs know about identifying traditional swords is therefore irrelevant, cos the procedure is to detain.

 

It does however have an impact. Some folks are afraid to send their swords to the UK and some sellers won't send swords to the UK, even though they are exempt. That however is getting on to where the law has an unintended economic impact.

 

Kevin