Better late than never. Here we go. What does this deal mean for borders, border formalities, customs & trade facilitation?

Long one. TL:DR very little at the moment but has potential

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Borders
When compared to no deal the deal changes very little in terms of border procedures. All formalities and checks will still be required.

Reminder - we're not starting from 0 here – both our container ports and our ro-ro ports are already congested

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On top of that, all the issues related to border readiness: lack of capacity and space, IT systems not ready, shortages of customs agents, treader readiness – have not been solved.

The deal doesn’t help with that.

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Here is where we are:
☑️The UK will phase-in border formalities over 6 months (customs and SPS)
☑️The EU will introduce full formalities in 3 days (customs + SPS)
☑️Irish Sea border also fully operational in 3 days with some short-term SPS easements

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Pre-notifications (safety & security declarations) not initially required on the UK side, needed for imports into the EU.

So what's in the deal?

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Been waiting for 👇 🚨

Important story on what a “tariff-free” deal means in practice and why it’s not enough for two economies as closely integrated.

Tariffs are removed on goods that meet rules of origin. This is a complex and nuanced area of customs.

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Important to remember that trade deals (FTAs) weren't designed with such a high degree of economic integration in mind.

So some of the standard RoO provisions will seem incredibly restrictive under the UK-EU deal.

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Minimal operations or insufficient processing is a standard part of an FTA. Most, if not all FTAs, include a provision on minimal processing – processing not considered sufficient to confer originating status even if rules of origin have been met.

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It is standard procedure not to apply cumulation when goods have only been subject to minimal processing.

To be able to cumulate origin and consider the final product of UK origin, the processing carried out in the UK needs to exceed minimal operations.

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The level of integration between the UK and the EU means that this will have significant consequences for a number of industries.

For example, in supply chains where goods are brought into the UK from the EU and reassembled, sorted or repackaged and re-exported to ROI.

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So on origin, it’s getting a bit hard to keep up with all the rumours so here is where I think we are with this (correct me if I missed something)

/1 https://t.co/N5dDcbH7u7

Claiming origin.
Two ways for traders to claim origin under the EU-UK deal:

1⃣ Self-certification by the exporter (standard) – normally requires an authorisation, I’m hearing that might not be needed for UK-EU trade – waiting for guidance or more info

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2⃣ Self-certification by the importer (new(ish), in the EU-Japan deal and some continuity deals). UK importers have little experience with this one, but helpful guidance available given initial uncertainty around using this form of certification

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Retrospective claims.
For up to 3 years under each side’s domestic regulation – conditions, circumstances to be determined by both sides.

Careful here cause you might be required to have a good justification for why it wasn’t submitted at the time of import. Guidance needed
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Additional easements
On the UK side, this is part of the 6 months phase-in period– if you’re deferring a customs declaration you’re also deferring submitting an origin claim. If you're not deferring than origin documentation required at the time of import.

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So many of you have tweeted this excellent 🧵at me. Thank you.

Couple of things to clarify in case you don't know what these systems are

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Daniel mentions 2 different systems: EMCS used to register movements of excise goods (wine) and CHIEF for customs.

As excise products are subject to additional controls EMCS was used even when we were in the EU. And it still is now.

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CHIEF is different, it's a customs systems. Reminder, as an EU member we didn't have customs borders with other EU states.

We've now introduced a new customs border so all movements to/from the EU need to be logged in CHIEF AS WELL AS other relevant systems.

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CHIEF isn't easy to use. Kudos to Daniel for managing to input directly into it. The additional software helps but yes, there is a cost involved. Or you can pay the broker.

Part of that extra admin cost we've been warning about for the last 5 years

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Another issue is that CHIEF will soon (ish) be replaced by CDS. A new version. So even if you learn how to deal with CHIEF now you'll soon need to re-learn on CDS.

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