National pilot project ‘Border One Stop Shop (BOSS)’ boosts Port of Hamburg
The Port of Hamburg is a leading European hub for imports and exports. As part of a European strategy, where possible all EU member states are to conduct the various checks at all European points of entry at the same time and place. In Germany, Hamburg will make the running on the national pilot project ‘Border One Stop Shop’ - BOSS – by assembling veterinary and food law import, plant health, conformity and Customs checks at the Waltershof/Finkenwerder Strasse site until now occupied by the Hamburg Customs Authority.
For the import checks, the agencies responsible for the project are the Hamburg Ministries of Justice/Consumer Protection and Economics/Innovation, the Directorate General of Customs, and the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food. Preliminary tests for a possible project have been under way since April 2019, with a successful outcome for both the project and the site. Today’s decision by the Senate takes the new project into its next stage, during which the scheme for implementing it will be worked out.
Supervised by the Hamburg Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection, the BOSS project aims to create a Border Control Centre enabling official point-of-entry checks on shipments to be conducted simultaneously at a single location. This will make the import handling of containers more efficient. For business, that will reduce costs as well as the organizational effort and time required, also providing synergies for the government agencies involved. This should boost the competitiveness of the Port of Hamburg and make a valuable contribution to cutting-edge development of the port.
Along with Customs, the BOSS site will accommodate the Hamburg Veterinary and Import Offices that will close their existing control points on Reiherdamm and Altenwerder Kirchtal. Similarly, the plant health controlling body and the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food will each maintain a facility on the BOSS site. BOSS will also serve to implement new European and national regulations on goods imports from third countries, as well as future legal control requirements.
