What happens to EU shipments on 1st November if there IS a Brexit agreement?
There has been a great deal of publicity in recent days about how to prepare for a no-deal Brexit, but the international delivery expert ParcelHero says the procedures for shipping items to the EU from November 1st onwards will be very different if a deal is agreed.
ParcelHero’s head of consumer research, David Jinks MILT, says: ‘The Government’s £100m advertising campaign has concentrated on what exporters, couriers and everyone wishing to send items to the EU must do in the event of a no-deal Brexit on 31st October. However, there are currently signs that the negotiations may actually be successful; if that is the case, companies and individuals should be aware much of the no-deal advice they have been reading will not apply.’
Explains David: ‘If there is a successful agreement in place by 31st October, (still a long shot, but currently looking a little more likely), all the most recent advice is largely irrelevant. In the short term, at least, instead of launching into a new regime of Customs’ invoices and tariff codes, there will be no immediate changes and businesses and individuals will carry on sending items just as they do today. Unless the final terms of the Brexit deal alter the plan, which is unlikely, a transition period will follow a Brexit agreement, and that will be likely to continue until December 2020.
‘During this period the procedures for exporting and importing goods and parcels stays broadly the same as now. That’s because only the bare bones of the terms of the UK’s exit from the EU have been agreed upon. The exact conditions and regulations under which we will continue to trade with the EU will only be thrashed out once agreement on the basic decision to leave has been approved.’
Says David: ‘Should a deal be agreed by 31st October we won’t actually know the exact shape of our relationship with the EU for at least a year. Indeed, the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, has even hinted the transition period – which the Government prefers to call the ‘implementation period’ as it sounds like lots is getting done – could continue to the end of 2022. So, to be clear, there will be no new Customs’ checks, paperwork or tariffs on 1st November.’
