Monaco has changed the way local companies handle imports and exports, making the process easier and allowing an administrative operation that previously forced applicants to go to Nice to take care of business closer to home.  

What a difference a few words make. By simply changing the name of Monaco’s Customs Office from an inspection centre to a main office, the act of import and export business has been simplified in the Principality.  

The Monaco Economic Board organised a conference on 2nd February at the Novotel to explain to interested parties how the new bureau will operate.  

Since October, Monaco’s office was considered a place where businesses needing customs approvals and advice stopped into before being sent to Nice to take care of the actual administrative procedures necessary for imports and exports.  

This was time-consuming and inconvenient, but as Monaco is considered part of France’s customs territory, and thus part of the European Union’s, it was a necessary evil. Now, the Monaco office has been allotted the same status as Nice, giving the region the only one ‘in France’ to have two main offices. 

“We now give access to all services, but also to remote customs clearance procedures which can be entrusted to Monegasque logistics professionals,” said Muriel Deya, Head of the Monaco Office. 

This new set-up also allows the possibility of having storage areas approved locally, which avoids companies being forced to transit goods through specific customs clearance areas. In addition, the Monaco Office’s knowledge of local players will help make checks easier, in particular avoiding certain random checks that have become unnecessary. 

Another feature of the new system allows for the idea of a ‘referent’ customs office, meaning companies can use the Monaco branch for all customs formalities upon leaving France. 

The conference, attended by about a hundred Monegasque professionals, was also an opportunity to present the many changes to come in the field of customs clearance as well as introduce the tools and regulations of which are constantly evolving.  

Roger Combe, the Regional Director of Nice Customs spoke about the changes, explaining that “Monaco is an important economic platform that did not have the appropriate customs structure to provide the best support to the economic actors of import [and] export.”  

With the changing of the name of the Monaco bureau, it now does.

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Photo source: Monaco Economic Board