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On Nov. 6, Belgium’s electronic import declaration system went fully offline at 08:00, while France’s DELTA export system failed at 14:00 the same day. According to Customs4trade, the two outages left customs processing in degraded or emergency mode at gateways including Antwerp, Le Havre, Brussels Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle.
France: import outage, then an export failure
Customs4trade reported that the trouble in France began on Nov. 2 at 00:00 in the DELTA I/E Import system. A fault in the exchange-rate lookup stopped operators from modifying pre-lodged declarations that involved foreign currencies. Creation of ELO records (entry in the declarant’s records) was also affected for imports and exports.
French customs allowed a paper-based fallback from Nov. 3 at 15:00. Operators had to cancel existing pre-lodged declarations and file new ones, which added rework and queues. Recovery began on Nov. 5 at 17:50, and the import system was confirmed restored around 10:00 on Nov. 6.
Within hours, a separate failure hit DELTA I/E Export at 14:00. Traffic saturation after the recovery slowed issuance of BAE (Bon à Enlever) exit confirmations. Operators were again authorized to use the fallback for non-priority operations.
Belgium: IDMS and AES problems
Belgium’s IDMS import system failed on Nov. 6 at 08:00. Authorities opened Emergency Procedure Call N05119, valid until Nov. 9 at 10:00. The source tied the fault to error TA00135, a failure in tariff calculation within the ITEMS module.
Declarants using the emergency route must add the required reference codes to paper BC-IDMS forms and email them to the responsible CRC offices. Those offices are in Antwerp, Ghent, Hasselt, Zaventem, Brussels and Bierset. According to the report, the manual route is much slower than electronic filing.
Separately, the Belgian Automated Export System has had processing delays since Nov. 4. Declarations stayed stuck in “Submitted” or “Accepted” status. A validation error, 99 T0007, tied to EU enterprise number checks, also appeared intermittently.
Key figures
- France import outage: Nov. 2 (00:00) to Nov. 6 (about 10:00)
- France export outage start: Nov. 6, 14:00
- Belgium IDMS emergency window: Nov. 6, 08:00 to Nov. 9, 10:00
- Belgium AES delays: since Nov. 4
What it means for shippers
Cargo cleared through Antwerp or Brussels Airport now depends on manual review by CRC offices. Customs4trade said goods are presumed released if no inspection decision arrives before the timer ends, but dwell times are hard to predict. It flagged that even 24 to 48 hours of delay can hurt perishables, temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals and just-in-time auto parts.
For French exports, goods cannot be handed to a vessel or aircraft until the BAE is issued, so backlogs can build at terminals. Customs4trade advised teams to audit shipments moving through France or Belgium, confirm with brokers that emergency codes were obtained, and allow roughly two to four extra business days for clearances due before Nov. 9. It also suggested watching for spillover at Rotterdam and German ports.
Importers should also review foreign customs entry information and check documents early. Recent port action that touched Le Havre adds another reason to confirm schedules. For background on delays on this trade lane, see how port congestion affects Asia-Europe freight.
