Customs & Trade Advisory across Europe.
Your customs operation should be more than a cost centre. Gaston Schul's Advisory team finds the savings in your trade, closes the compliance gaps before an audit does, and gets you ready for the regulations coming next.
AEO Authorised
across our markets
Independent
and privately owned
Local teams
across Europe
180+ years
as customs and trade experts
OUR ADVISORY SERVICES
The customs expertise your business runs on, across Europe.
Seven advisory services, from one independent partner, all under one operating model. Find the expertise your customs operation needs.
Customs Health Check
Not sure where your customs operation leaks cost or carries risk? A structured Health Check assesses your gaps, exposure and savings, and gives you a prioritised action plan to work from.
Duty Optimisation
Paying more duty than you need to? Every lever to reduce it, reliefs, special procedures, valuation, classification and refunds, is reviewed and applied to your goods.
Tariff Classification
Your commodity (HS) code sets your duty, your controls and your licences. Your classifications are confirmed, reviewed and backed with Binding Tariff Information (BTI) where it helps.
Trade Compliance
Worried you are exposed? Your audits, sanctions and export-control screening, documentation and internal controls are checked and strengthened, so a customs audit finds you ready.
Trade Agreements & Origin
Trading under a free trade agreement? Your origin is determined, your preference documents prepared, and your supply chain structured to claim the lower duty you qualify for.
Authorisations & Licensing
Need AEO, or the authorisations your operation runs on? We run the application, build the procedures and stand with you at the audit, from AEO to warehousing, IPR/OPR and deferment.
VAT & Fiscal Representation
Financing import VAT you could defer? Your fiscal representation, VAT deferment, recovery and returns are set up and managed, so VAT stops holding up your cash flow.
The combination of onsite support and deep customs knowledge makes Gaston Schul an invaluable partner. Their tailored support helps us turn regulatory requirements into workable solutions.
Debby Sikking
Head of Legal, Priva
WHY ADVISORY
Customs advisory that saves you money, not just keeps you compliant.
Most businesses treat customs as something to clear and forget. The ones who treat it as something to manage pay less duty, move faster and carry less risk. In our experience, the biggest savings and the biggest exposures tend to hide in the same three places: how goods are classified, how they are valued, and how origin is evidenced. Advisory is where those are found and put right.
We connect advice to execution. The team that reviews your classification also files your declarations, so a saving we identify is a saving you actually apply, not a report that goes unread. If the goal is your total duty cost rather than any single shipment, that is our Visibility and cost control solution
HOW TO CHOOSE
What good customs advisory looks like.
Plenty of firms will write you a customs opinion. Fewer will put it into practice and run it. Before you appoint an advisor, here is the standard worth demanding.
- Advice tied to execution. The advisor who finds the saving should be able to apply it. We do not hand you a hundred-page slide deck and leave your team to implement it. We advise, then we run the declarations, authorisations and reporting, so a recommendation becomes a result, not a document you are left to action yourself.
- Independent and conflict-free. Gaston Schul is privately owned, with no parent company and no outside shareholders. So the advice is impartial: nothing to upsell from a group above us, and no target but yours. Your data stays yours.
- Proactive, not just reactive. Regulatory change flagged before it affects you, savings identified before you ask, and reviews that keep finding value, not a one-off report you never look at again.
- Measurable outcomes. Duty saved, risks closed, audits passed, authorisations granted. Good advisory shows its value in numbers you can see.
RELATED NEWS
Customs & Trade. Controlled.
Gaston Schul does more than advise. We connect it all and run it as one. That is what one full-service operating model gives you, across all your customs and trade in Europe: the clarity to see, the control to govern, and the confidence to decide.
GET IN TOUCH
From customs and trade questions to clear answers.
Tell us where customs is costing you time or money, and an advisor will tell you exactly how we can help. No obligation, just a clear answer from someone who knows customs.
Customs advisory FAQs
Customs advisory: frequently asked questions
(Looking for how customs clearance actually works, step by step? Our Trade Intelligence Hub covers the detail - this page keeps to the commercial questions.)
What is customs consultancy?
Customs consultancy is expert advice that strengthens how your business handles customs, beyond filing declarations: reducing the duty you pay, keeping you compliant, preparing you for regulatory change, and proving origin to claim lower rates. Gaston Schul both advises and executes, so the advice is applied, not just written.
How is advisory different from customs clearance?
Clearance is the operational work of moving goods through customs. Advisory is the expertise that makes that work cheaper, safer and more strategic: classification, valuation, origin, duty reliefs, compliance and authorisations. Most providers do one. We do both, under one operating model.
Do I still need advisory if I already have a customs broker?
Usually, yes. A broker files your declarations; advisory looks at whether you are paying too much duty, carrying hidden risk, or missing the reliefs and trade agreements you qualify for. The two work best together, which is why we offer both.
Can you reduce the duty we pay?
Often, yes. We review classification, customs valuation, origin, special procedures and reliefs, and reclaim duty you have overpaid, then tell you which apply to your goods. Correct classification alone is frequently the difference between the right duty rate and an avoidable one.
Will advisory help us pass a customs audit?
That is much of what trade compliance advisory is for. We check your procedures, documentation, valuation and screening, close the gaps, and keep an audit-ready record, so a customs audit confirms what you already know rather than uncovering a problem.
Where should we start?
With a Customs Health Check. It is a structured assessment of your customs operation that finds your gaps, risks and savings and gives you a prioritised action plan, so any further advisory work is aimed where it delivers most.
Can one partner handle customs advisory across Europe?
Yes. Our own teams cover 14 European markets, with an alliance network reaching further, all under one operating model. So your classification, duty, compliance and authorisations follow one standard across Europe, with one partner accountable for them.
How are you different from an accountancy or law firm's customs team?
We advise and execute. An accountancy or law firm can write you a customs opinion; we give you the advice and then run the declarations, authorisations and reporting that put it into practice. And we are independent, privately owned, with no parent company over us and no outside shareholders, so the advice serves your business, not a sales target.