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
Carbon border adjustment dominated the week on both sides of the Channel. The House of Commons approved the regulations that fix how the UK CBAM rate will be calculated and how relief for carbon prices paid abroad will be claimed, completing the secondary legislation the mechanism needs before it commences on 1 January 2027; in the same week the Prime Minister confirmed a UK–EU summit for 20 November. The European Commission published the EU CBAM certificate price for the third quarter of 2026, the first material rise since the definitive period began. We also set out the implementation timetable for the recast Union Customs Code, which was published in the Official Journal last month and whose main obligations fall due between 2027 and 2034, and we note that the Kenya Revenue Authority’s move to privately supplied electronic cargo seals completes on 26 October, with the final cutover now inside a fortnight.
UK CBAM: the rate-calculation regulations are approved
UK Parliament and legislation.gov.uk, 14 October 2026. The House of Commons approved the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (Calculation of CBAM Rate and Determination of Carbon Price Relief) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/809, on 14 October, following consideration in a Delegated Legislation Committee on 12 October. The instrument, made under the made-affirmative procedure in July, sets out how the CBAM rate is to be calculated and the conditions under which a liable person may claim relief for a carbon price already paid in the country of production, including which overseas schemes qualify. The parliamentary record of the instrument’s progress and the explanatory note on legislation.gov.uk are the authoritative sources; the regulations come into force on 1 January 2027. Separately, the Government announced on 12 October that the Prime Minister will attend a UK–EU summit in Brussels on 20 November; the announcement lists security, migration and reducing costs for farmers and businesses among the agenda, and does not mention CBAM.
What it means. With this instrument approved, the machinery on which UK CBAM registration, rate calculation and the first returns will run is settled law rather than a draft. Importers of iron and steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser and hydrogen goods should now build their 2027 planning against the published regulations: identifying which of their suppliers operate under a carbon pricing scheme that qualifies for relief, and what evidence will be needed to claim it, is the part of the preparation most likely to be underestimated. The November summit is a diary date, not a change to anyone’s liability. Until a legal act on either side alters the position, full CBAM obligations apply to UK goods entering the EU and to EU goods entering the UK from 1 January 2027, and planning should proceed on that basis.
EU CBAM: the third-quarter certificate price rises to €82.32
European Commission, DG TAXUD, 5 October 2026. The Commission published the CBAM certificate price applicable to goods imported during the third quarter of 2026 at €82.32 per tonne of CO2e, up from €75.28 for the second quarter and €75.36 for the first. The price is the weighted average of the auction clearing prices of EU ETS allowances over the quarter, calculated in the first week after the quarter ends. The fourth-quarter price is due on 4 January 2027, after which the Commission moves to publishing prices weekly rather than quarterly. The published price table is on the Commission’s CBAM pages.
What it means. A rise of roughly nine per cent in a single quarter is a reminder that CBAM cost is a moving figure tied to the EU carbon market, not a tariff line that can be fixed in a contract. Importers of CBAM goods should reconcile the quantities declared for the third quarter against the published price when provisioning for certificate purchases, and finance teams should model exposure on a range of carbon prices rather than a point estimate. The shift to weekly pricing from 2027 will make that exposure more visible, and more volatile, in the accounts; it also sharpens the commercial value of verified, lower embedded-emissions data from suppliers, since it is the declared emissions, not the price, that an importer can still influence.
Union Customs Code recast: the implementation timetable
Official Journal of the European Union, 19 September 2026. Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 establishing the Union Customs Code and the European Union Customs Authority, and repealing Regulation (EU) No 952/2013, was adopted on 16 September and published on 19 September. On the regulation’s own account, the large majority of its provisions apply twelve months after entry into force, with the repeal of the current Code taking effect only after that adaptation period; the provisions on distance sales and on the EU Customs Authority apply from 1 July 2028; economic operators may begin using the EU Customs Data Hub on a voluntary basis from 1 March 2031; and the Hub is to be fully developed, and used by all economic operators, by 1 March 2034. The text on EUR-Lex is authoritative.
What it means. The length of the runway is easy to misread in either direction. Nothing changes at the border for most traders until the autumn of 2027, so there is no reason for alarm; but the Code introduces a revised concept of the importer that reaches online platforms selling into the Union, a Trust and Check trader status alongside the existing AEO framework, and a single data environment that will eventually replace national declaration systems. Businesses with EU import operations should use the coming year to understand where they will sit under the new importer definition and whether Trust and Check is a status they will want to hold. Administrations in the Member States, and in countries that model their customs law on the Union Code, should read the staged dates as a project plan: the Data Hub timetable in particular is a statement of how long the Union itself expects a full data-centric transition to take.
Kenya: the cutover to privately supplied electronic cargo seals completes on 26 October
Kenya Revenue Authority, public notice dated 11 September 2026. The Authority has published the list of fifteen vendors approved to supply electronic seals for dry cargo and electronic monitoring devices for fuel under a multi-vendor, user-owned framework, and has confirmed that KRA-owned seals under the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System will be phased out by 26 October 2026. From that date goods under customs control are to be monitored only with devices from approved vendors; importers, exporters, clearing agents, transporters and bonded warehouse operators are to select a vendor and contract with it directly. The notice is on the KRA website.
What it means. With ten days to the deadline, any operator moving transit or bonded cargo through Kenya or along the Northern Corridor who has not yet contracted with an approved vendor should do so now, and should confirm with the vendor how its devices and data will connect to the regional tracking platform used by the partner states. The notice does not address how devices from different vendors interact with one another, so consignments that change custody between operators using different suppliers deserve particular attention during the changeover. For administrations, the Kenyan model is an instructive example of shifting the cost and ownership of tracking hardware to users while the authority retains the data; the test of such a model is whether interoperability is specified clearly enough that the risk-management picture stays whole.
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.