UK–EU Trade: Improving Administrative Procedures & Supporting UK Businesses Trading with Europe Post-Brexit

At the beginning of 2021, the UK formally withdrew from both the EU Single Market and the Customs Union. While trade between the EU and the UK has been gradually recovering, the ONS July Business Impact Survey revealed that approximately 30% of importing businesses and 40% of exporting businesses have been trading at a reduced capacity. Most ascribed the decrease in trading volume to additional paperwork, change in transportation costs, and custom duties and levies. Exacerbated by labour shortages due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit settlement arrangements, post-Brexit trade between the UK and the EU has led to a number of challenges for many sectors.

To ease registration procedures, the government began issuing Economic Operators Registration and Identification (EORI) numbers to VAT-registered businesses as early as 2019. In July 2020, the government announced that import declarations for EU goods can be deferred by up to 175 days after Brexit. Following fears over post-Brexit border checks, and straining food supply in March 2021, the government again acted by delaying full border checks for an extra 6-month period. All these were put in place to assist British businesses’ preparation for trading with continental Europe and Ireland in a post-Brexit landscape.

Yet, despite these steps UK-EU trade is still being hindered by the changes following Brexit. The UK exports market is disproportionately affected by the additional paperwork and administration. The Scottish fisheries industry, for example, estimated a £1 million per day loss earlier in the year owing to the new customs procedures. To cope with this, the government generally advises businesses to hire a special operator or freight forwarder to process exports declarations, but this too, has suffered with shortages with only about 11,000-12,000 UK-based customs agents to complete the projected 220 million declarations forms per year. The problem of exports is further complicated by Irish borders, where trade barriers between Britain and Ireland have effectively been shifted to the Irish Sea through the 2020 Northern Ireland Protocol. The delay caused by exports customs is particularly disruptive to Northern Ireland’s supply chain, with some supermarket chains still struggling with supply chains of fresh produce. It is also clear that the new Rules of Origin (RoO) thresholds are likely to be disadvantageous to the UK as they require UK-based firms to use locally sourced and/or manufactured products to enjoy the zero-tariff clause in the agreement, significantly lowering their competitiveness in the wider European market.

This timely symposium provides an invaluable opportunity for policymakers, industry representatives, customs authorities, and other key stakeholders to gain a better understanding on the current state of UK-EU cross-border trade and how to relieve the pressure imposed upon international traders and businesses.

Programme

• Learn about the current state of EU-UK trade and the major challenges businesses are facing post-Brexit
• Gain an understanding of administration procedures/paperwork required of the trading industry under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA)
• Discuss how to support UK businesses trading into Europe
• Develop new solutions for customs officials, local authorities and businesses to smoothen the administrative process
• Examine the political and economic sustainability of the Northern Ireland Protocol, and Northern Ireland’s place between two custom entities
• Identify key areas of improvement to prevent border congestion and unbalanced trade going forward
• Assess the impacts and duration of the customs agent shortage situation
• Consider the disruption caused by labour shortages to UK supply chains and potential solutions