Textile products and clothing

There are restrictions on the importation into Germany of certain products in Section XI of the Combined Nomenclature in the area of textile products and clothing.

The import of such products may require the presentation of an import authorisation issued by the competent authority of an Europan Union Member State.

The relevant restrictions are included in the notes to the relevant code numbers of the import list in the electronic customs tariff.

Import clearance procedure

Where an import authorisation is required, the importer must be in possession of a valid authorisation at the time of importation clearance.

If the import clearance is being made electronically via the computer-based ATLAS system, the authorisation of the customs office need not be presented during the import clearance procedure if it has been issued by the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control. The importer must retain the prescribed, correctly issued, and valid authorisation in his business or with his representative, and need only present it when required to do so.

The import authorisation details are transmitted electronically by the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control to ATLAS and are then immediately available to the German customs offices for import clearance.
If the paper-based import clearance procedure is being followed, the authorisation paper must be submitted to the German customs office together with the customs declaration when the import is being cleared.

Import authorisations that have been issued in some other Europan Union Member State must always be presented on paper.

Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control import authorisations are copied electronically by the customs office, which transmits the information via ATLAS to the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control.
Where the importer is presenting the import authorisation on paper, the German customs office will copy the authorisation on the reverse of the paper and return it to the importer.

Issue

The Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control is the competent authority in Germany for the issue of import authorisations.