Trade & Customs Watch is our weekly briefing on the customs, tariff and trade-regulatory developments that matter to businesses moving goods across borders and to the administrations that control them. Each item is drawn from the primary record and linked to it, with a short note on what it means in practice.
The week in brief
A quieter week on the UK and EU regulatory track, but not an empty one. The European Commission published the CBAM certificate price for the third quarter of 2026, the first material rise since the definitive period began, and importers of CBAM goods now have the figure against which that quarter’s liability will be settled. In East Africa, the Kenya Revenue Authority’s transition from state-owned cargo-tracking seals to a multi-vendor model reaches its cutover on 26 October, which gives transporters and clearing agents on the Northern Corridor less than three weeks to put commercial arrangements in place. The World Customs Organization and Europol renewed their joint action plan against transnational organised crime, and in West Africa the Nigeria Customs Service brought a simplified, automated passenger-baggage declaration into full operation at the Seme border with Benin. We take each in turn.
Kenya moves cargo tracking to approved private vendors from 26 October
Kenya Revenue Authority, 11 September 2026. In a public notice, the Kenya Revenue Authority confirmed that it has approved fifteen vendors to provide electronic monitoring and tracking of goods under customs control, and that the electronic seals it presently owns under the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System will be phased out gradually up to 26 October 2026. From that date, monitoring of goods under customs control is to be undertaken exclusively by means of devices supplied by the approved vendors, under private commercial agreements between vendors and users. Users may choose any approved vendor; the list is available from the Authority’s Cargo Monitoring Unit and customs offices. The notice does not address interoperability between the vendors’ systems or with partner-state systems.
What it means. For importers, transporters and clearing agents moving goods in transit or under bond through Mombasa and along the Northern Corridor, this is a procurement decision with a hard deadline rather than a change in customs procedure. A consignment that today moves under a state-issued seal will, from 26 October, need a seal from a contracted vendor, on that vendor’s commercial terms. Operators should confirm now which vendor they will use, what the per-trip or subscription cost will be, and how a movement that changes hands between carriers will be handled where those carriers hold contracts with different vendors. For administrations considering a multi-vendor model of this kind, the notice is a useful reminder that opening the market to competing suppliers resolves the supply question but leaves the data question open: a common data standard, or at least a published interface specification, is what allows a customs system to read any approved device without separate integration work for each supplier.
CBAM certificate price for the third quarter of 2026 set at €82.32
European Commission, Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, 5 October 2026. The Commission published the price of CBAM certificates applicable to goods imported into the European Union during the third quarter of 2026, at €82.32 per tonne of CO2 equivalent. The published series for the year now reads €75.36 for the first quarter, €75.28 for the second and €82.32 for the third; the fourth-quarter price is scheduled for publication on 4 January 2027. The price is calculated from EU Emissions Trading System allowance auction prices and is published quarterly under the applicable rules.
What it means. This is the first material movement in the certificate price since the definitive period of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism began, an increase of a little over nine per cent on the second quarter. For authorised CBAM declarants importing iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertilisers, hydrogen or electricity, the quarterly price is the figure that converts embedded emissions into a financial liability, and a rise of this size is worth reflecting in landed-cost models and in pricing conversations with non-EU suppliers now rather than at the point of annual settlement. Importers who have not yet obtained reliable installation-level emissions data from their suppliers should note that the default values applied in its absence are designed to be unattractive, and that the cost of relying on them rises in step with the certificate price. For administrations outside the EU, the published series is a clear signal of the carbon cost that their exporters now face at the EU border and a reference point in any discussion of domestic carbon pricing.
WCO and Europol renew their joint action plan against organised crime
World Customs Organization, 1 October 2026. The WCO announced that it and Europol signed an updated Joint Cooperation Action Plan on 29 September 2026 at Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, during the European Police Chiefs Convention. The plan builds on the Cooperation Agreement the two organisations concluded in 2002 and was signed by the WCO Deputy Secretary General and Europol’s Deputy Executive Director of Operations. The announcement identifies transnational organised crime as a shared priority and refers specifically to Operation Global Gateway, which addresses the movement and diversion of explosive precursor chemicals and other components of improvised explosive devices, to the Operations STOP series targeting infringements of intellectual property rights, and to the exchange of knowledge, data and intelligence to improve targeting. The two organisations have agreed to carry out joint and coordinated activities in the coming months.
What it means. The practical significance for traders is in the operational detail rather than the signing itself. Joint customs-police operations of the kind named here are typically run as time-bound enforcement surges across many ports and airports at once, and consignments in the targeted product groups, in particular chemicals that can serve as explosive precursors and branded consumer goods, can expect a higher rate of examination while an operation runs. Businesses in those sectors should make sure their classification, origin and licensing documentation is in order and that their customs intermediaries know who to call if a consignment is held. For customs administrations, the renewed plan is a reminder that the intelligence-sharing arrangements between customs and police at European level are maturing, and that national risk-management systems are increasingly expected to act on alerts that originate outside the customs domain.
Nigeria brings an automated passenger-baggage declaration into operation at Seme
Nigeria Customs Service, Seme Area Command, as reported by the Federal Government’s Voice of Nigeria, 3 October 2026. The Seme Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service announced that its Simplified Declaration for Passenger Baggage Import system has entered full operation at the Seme-Krake border with Benin. Passengers declare baggage on a mobile device or at a digital kiosk, and the system calculates duties automatically from standardised, pre-programmed assessment tables and issues a payment receipt. The Command reported average baggage clearance times of under five minutes since deployment and revenue of a little over ₦10.3 million from baggage declarations in the first days of operation, and said that enforcement against commercial quantities of restricted or prohibited goods concealed as baggage continues alongside the system.
What it means. For travellers and small traders crossing at Seme, the change is that the duty payable on accompanied goods is now determined by a published table rather than by an officer’s assessment at the counter, which should make the cost of crossing more predictable and the process faster. The wider interest is in what the design tells us. Replacing discretionary assessment with a fixed table is one of the simplest and most effective ways of reducing both delay and the opportunity for informal payments at a land border, and it does not depend on a large systems programme. Administrations elsewhere that are looking for early, visible results from a modernisation effort could do worse than start with the passenger channel. It should be read for what it is, though: a passenger-side measure. It does not of itself change the documentary requirements or clearance times that apply to commercial cargo at the same border, which remain governed by the commercial declaration process.
Trade & Customs Watch is compiled from primary sources: HMRC, the Department for Business and Trade, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union, the World Customs Organization and national customs administrations. Items are summarised; the linked record is authoritative. Commentary is our own and is general in nature, not advice on any particular transaction. To discuss what any of these developments means for your business or administration, contact us.