Holland International Distribution Council Brexit webinar

On Thursday, December 17 the Holland International Distribution Council has organized the last Brexit webinar in a series of three this year. Head of UK Trade David Besseling from Samskip, senior Policy Advisor Enforcement and International Affairs Rick Ligthart and corporate Advisor & Post Brexit Specialist Raimond Nicodem of Nicodem & Company informed the attendees about all the ins and outs around Brexit.

With two weeks to go until Brexit, it will be difficult for companies to switch to other modalities for their goods, let alone set up a completely new supply chain in two weeks. Raimond Nicodem’s strategic analysis therefore mainly looked at the first half of 2021. The border between the UK and EU is then a fait accompli. Rick Ligthart explained what the role of Customs is in such a case and to what formalities this will lead to. David Besseling advocated the use of short sea solutions as an alternative to traditional truck transport.

Questions and answers

Q: When the Brexit Emergency Plan comes into force, will that release us temporaily from customs formalities for a maximum of 6 months?
A: No, in the national emergency plans this can’t be decided so starting on January 1st 2021 all the customs formalities need to be fullfilled,

Q: Are the future UK regulations similar as currently in Switzerland or any other non eu country or will there be a special relation UK-EU as per other countries
A: The EU and the UK are negotiating a Free Trade Agreement. The outcome of that process will determine the relation between them.
For the UK regulations please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-border-operating-model
In this document the UK Government has published the procedures and formalities for trade between the EU and the UK from January 1, 2021.
Note:The negotiations are ongoing, the future relation is discussed and at this moment we don’t know the outcome.