07/02/2021
ImpexPack.com
Are you Ready for Brexit?
I thought the UK had already left the EU?
It has. The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 and officially left the trading bloc - it's nearest and biggest trading partner - on 31 January 2020.
However, both sides agreed to keep many things the same until 31 December 2020, to allow enough time to agree to the terms of a new trade deal.
It was a complex, sometimes bitter negotiation, but they finally agreed a deal on 24 December.
Will there be disruption at the borders?
There may not be new taxes to pay at the border, but there will be new paperwork, and the potential for it to cause delays is a serious concern.
"This is the biggest imposition of red tape that businesses have had to deal with in 50 years," according to William Bain from the British Retail Consortium.
The UK says it will delay making most checks for six months, to allow people to get used to the new system, but the EU will be checking paperwork and carrying out checks from day one. So if businesses are not prepared, or do not fill in the new paperwork correctly, it could cause delays and backlogs at ports like Dover.
The government has known about this for years, and has made plans to divert trade to other ports around the country and has built lorry parks in Kent, to avoid gridlock on the roads.
It's difficult to predict what the scale of any disruption might be, but government minister Michael Gove has said that UK businesses should prepare for some "bumpy moments".
Is this finally the end of having to hear about Brexit?
Sadly, no. Decisions are still to be made on data sharing and on financial services, and the agreement on fishing only lasts five years.
Also while the UK and EU have agreed to some identical rules now, they don't have to be identical in the future, and if one side takes exception to the changes, they can trigger a dispute, which could ultimately lead to tariffs (charges on imports) being imposed on some goods in the future.
Expect the threat of disputes to be a new constant in UK-EU relations.
