The legislation governing the data content and the codes used in the customs declaration can sometimes be hard to interpret. Finnish Customs has provided some explanatory texts to make the declaration process easier. The declarants and those submitting the declarations are responsible for following the customs legislation. For example, if the explanatory text for a declaration data item refers to certain special provisions, the declarants should inform themselves of the content of these provisions.
The message flow and data requirements are based on the Union Customs Code (UCC) of the European Union and more closely on the data requirement tables in the Delegated and Implementing Acts (UCC DA and IA respectively) and the EU customs data model (EUCDM) defined therein, but are amended to meet the national requirements. Whenever possible, the messages are mapped to the EUCDM and the underlying World Customs Organization Data Model (WCO DM) version 3.10.0 . It is possible, that the messages will need to be amended, when further mapping projects against the WCO DM are undertaken to maximize compatibility of the messages between the different member states.
The messages are sent by using XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) syntax.
One interchange includes one message only.
Messages must conform to the XML specifications provied. If a message includes additional data and this does not cause an error message, the Finnish Customs processes the message as if the additional data was not included in the message.
Class diagram and data requirements
Dates and times are declared with time zone information. If no time zone information is provided Finnish time (EET/EEST) is assumed. Dates and times are formatted according to XML specifications, corresponding to ISO standard 8601. For example:
2010-09-29
2012-02-29T12:30:05
1997-07-16T19:20:30.45+01:00
Further information on declaring dates can be found e.g. at: http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-datetime.
Format
The data and length is in the column "Format". The codes for the different types of data are:
| a | alphabetic |
| n | numeric |
| an | alphanumeric |
The number after the code indicates the maximum length of the data entry. Two periods before the indication of the length means that the data entry is not of a determined length, but that it may include a number of characters up to the number indicated. A decimal between two numbers indicates that decimals are used and the second number indicates the maximum number of decimals. A period is used as a decimal separator. For example:
| an..35 | alphanumeric data up to 35 digits |
| a2 | alphabetic data; 2 digits |
| n..15,2 | numeric data up to 15 digits, including maximum 2 (floating) decimals |
Presentation (RDO)
The codes for data presentation are:
| R | required |
| D | dependant |
| O | optional |
| N | not used |
Numeric data is always positive, no plus sign (+) is sent. A period must be used for a decimal separator. Leading zeros can be used, they are not used by the Finnish Customs.