The future of customs audits: from post-clearance to continuous?

For decades, the post-clearance audit followed a familiar routine: goods are released, and years later auditors arrive to examine the declarations. The 34th Authors' Meeting asked whether that routine is coming to an end - and the timing was right: on 19 September 2026, the new Union Customs Code was published in the Official Journal as Regulation (EU) 2026/2108; it entered into force the following day and applies from 21 September 2027. Under the new code, data will flow continuously into the EU Customs Data Hub, Trust and Check traders will be supervised through their own systems rather than declaration by declaration, and the customs declaration itself ends in March 2034. This is not only a European story - the same shift is under way elsewhere under other names, such as e-audit, data analytics, AI-based risk selection and self-assessment. The form differs, the direction does not: controls are moving away from the single declaration and towards the trader's systems, processes and data. The overview below brings together key insights from the discussion.