Switzerland: customs law overhaul adopted, in force expected 2027-2028
The Swiss National Council adopted on 6 March 2024 a full revision of the Customs Act, splitting it into a Customs Duty Act and a new act on enforcement and assessment by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS). The referendum deadline ran until October 2025 without leading to a vote, but practitioners in the Swiss customs sector no longer expect the new text to take effect before 2027 or 2028.
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This revision is part of DaziT, the digital transformation programme for Swiss customs, launched to simplify and automate customs declarations and the collection of import duties and taxes. The text adopted on 6 March 2024 reorganises Swiss customs law by separating the rules on the remission of customs duties, now grouped into a dedicated Customs Duty Act, from a new legal framework on enforcement and assessment by the FOCBS.
According to Swiss customs consultancies following the matter, the new legal framework is no longer expected to take effect before 2027, or even 2028, pending the FOCBS finalising the implementing ordinances and the new Passar declaration system. An interim technical step, adding simplified goods declaration to Passar 2.0, is announced for the second quarter of 2026, ahead of the law itself entering into force.
In the meantime, the customs regime currently in force in Switzerland continues to apply unchanged to goods imported from China or any other third country, including the regime abolishing industrial customs duties that took effect on 1 January 2024, which remains separate from this procedural reform and is not called into question by it.
Eventually affected are all operators declaring goods in Switzerland, whether based in Switzerland or importing there from abroad, notably via the simplified declaration platforms targeted by the Passar modernisation. No new, immediate obligation applies to importers as of 27 September 2026, with the reform still in its technical and regulatory preparation phase.
What it changes for an importer
For a client importing into Switzerland goods manufactured in China, this reform changes nothing in the short term to current customs duties or formalities, but it points to a more digitalised Swiss customs declaration in the medium term, with the final timetable to be confirmed through the FOCBS's future official announcements. Sorva follows this matter for clients transiting goods through Switzerland or importing there directly, without standing in for the Swiss customs declarant, who remains the importer or their local freight forwarder.
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