The guidance details the changes to the movement of goods from Northern Ireland to the EU and imports of low value goods into the EU or Northern Ireland. The package also introduces new rules for supplies made through online marketplaces.

The policy states that the principle of distance selling of business to consumer (B2C) goods between EU member states and Northern Ireland remains unchanged.

The current thresholds of €35,000 or €100,000 set by each EU member state will be replaced with a single pan-European threshold of €10,000 (£8,818). The UK threshold is set at £70,000.

This new threshold will apply to the total cross-border sales by the business across the EU and not on a country-by-country basis. This means businesses selling B2C goods from and to Northern Ireland and the EU above the distance selling threshold will be affected by the new rules.