The European Union and The United Kingdom

Last month's biggest news was the Northern Ireland trade deal between the European Union and the United Kingdom. The border situation between Northern Ireland and Ireland is delicate, and both parties wanted to ensure no hard border crossings were necessary.

Reuters gives an overview of the main points in the agreement:

Why was the Northern Ireland Protocol created?

The NI Protocol created a sea border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. This keeps Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland within the same customs territory.

The reason for this is to prevent a land border being created between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, due to the historical conflict between the two countries.

Connecting both ends of the process

Have you ever struggled with getting documents for customs clearance in time, or had to relay queries between the supplier/buyer/agent so that clearance can be completed?

Using end-to-end customs clearance agents removes that inefficiency for you. Once the documents are received from the supplier, they will be checked by the export agent to ensure they meet all requirements. If there are no queries, clearance will be completed and all documents will be sent to the import clearance agent.

The Bill intends to put over 1,500 pieces of EU legislation under review for amendment, cancellation, or keeping, by a date set in a “sunset clause” – optimistically within five years.
Within this submission, the UK will review items of EU legislation that have been admitted to UK law without going through the process of parliamentary approval due to previous EU membership. 

HMRC have stated that the project – originally designed to ease pressure on Dover customs with the upcoming border checks from the EU and foodstuffs – is no longer required as other sites have the capacity with the reduced requirements. Although the decision to cancel the facility means that the 400 job vacancies are no longer available, HMRC has stated that £120 million will be saved by halting the project.

Inland border facilities were introduced to manage additional customs clearance processing after Brexit.

Jacob Rees Mogg has stated:

"No further import controls on EU goods will be introduced this year. Businesses can stop their preparations for July now…

The Goods Vehicle Movement Service is a customs system of the British Customs Authority designed to speed up clearances of vehicles arriving from the EU by allowing pre-lodgement of the manifest. When goods are shipped from China, there is ample time to process documents and clear shipments. The ferry from the European Union reaches the United Kingdom in two hours, which means trucks could end up waiting for clearance, creating delays and blockage at the port.

We are on the brink of another critical moment in the Brexit timeline. As of January 1st 2022, the British Government will take the following steps in their phased approach to border control and trade between the European Union and the United Kingdom.