Brexit news & updates

Covid and Supply Chain Pressure

The main reasons given for delaying the implementation are the increasing pressure on supply chains worldwide. Covid forced many companies to revise and change their supply chains completely. The aftermath of airfreight coming to a full stop and complete ports coming to a standstill can still be felt. Transportation and freight prices have never been this high?

It has been five years since the British people took a vote on whether to leave the European Union or not. The result of the vote was that the United Kingdom was to leave the European Union, which officially did on January 1st of this year. Until the last moment, it was unclear whether there would be a trade deal between the European Union and the United Kingdom. A disastrous no-deal Brexit was avoided at the last minute.

In contrast to the European Union, the British Government has opted for a phased approach to the implementation of import controls. April 1st the next phase of this implementation was supposed to start, but this has now been postponed. 

Customs systems on both sides are straining under a load of additional documents and certificates, the French customs systems being among them. For many companies, Calais is top of mind when they need to ship goods from the European Union to the United Kingdom, but there are alternatives like Antwerp and Rotterdam and Zeebrugge.

The European Union immediately implemented all full checks and measures, whereas the United Kingdom has chosen a phased approach.

When the number of cross-Channel shipments picked up again, the Customs systems in the United Kingdom couldn’t handle the workload and the systems in France were cracking at the seams. The problems with the British NCTS system have since been solved.

According to Bloomberg, HMRC is also blaming it on a recent software upgrade of its New Computerised Transit System (NCTS), which processes all transit applications. HMRC are advising companies to hold their goods for a week and ship them next week when the systems are expected to be working again. For many companies, this is not an option.

When everybody in the European Union was wishing each other a Happy New Year on December 31st at 12pm it was still 11 pm in the United Kingdom. While they had still an hour to go until January 1st 2021 they had already officially left the European Union. Brexit was finally a fact.

The Trade and Cooperation Agreement, as it is officially called, had already been approved by the House of Commons and the House of Lords, and finally, Queen Elizabeth II gave Royal Assent on December 31st.

We are informing you about claiming preferential treatment for your imports and how to prove origin. This applies to companies in The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Poland.

Just before Christmas, many companies in the European Union and the United Kingdom got the Christmas gift they were hoping for: a trade agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom. Now that the bells have stopped jingling and Santa has parked his sleigh for another year it is time to look into what the new trade deal means for businesses in the European Union and the United Kingdom.