Customs certification for wine imports to Brazil
Question
Hi,
I have a problem with a container of wines held up at Customs in Brazil. I am being told that the Certification of Analysis and Origin needs to have a handwritten signature and that an electonic signature is no longer acceptable. Our last import to Brazil was over a year ago and an electronic signature seemed to be fine. Have the rules changed or have we hit a "local difficulty"?
Answer
Hi,
Where did you obtain your Certificate of Analysis and Origin? Was it stamped by a UK Chamber of Commerce to verify that the signature was recognised as this may help?
We issue thousands of Certificates of Origin and other stamped documents through the e-z Cert (www.e-zcert.com) service each year and it’s rare to encounter a problem abroad with the electronic stamps and signatures.
If the document was issued by a UK Chamber of Commerce I can seek support from the British Chambers of Commerce to backup the authenticity of the document with customs in Brazil but it might just be a local difficulty at that port, on that day, with that official.
Kind regards,
Ian James.
Answer
Many thanks Ian, that is very helpful. I forgot to mention that the goods were shipping from Australia, not the UK, but thanks for your offer of help there. I think I have now established that it is a local difficulty with a particular official who may be feeling undervalued as we have been informed that if we pay "Storage and Demurrage fees" of AUD$7,500 the wines can be released. so something isn’t quite adding up. I will now work on the lab to come up with a hand signed document.
kind regards
Anne