Thread by @AnnaJerzewska

Highly recommended 🧵from Shane 👇

A few thoughts on why that is - why the UK BOM might not be enough and why it's worth reading the EU guidance

/1

https://twitter.com/ColdChainShane/status/1347885420823130114

First though, in the run-up to Jan, I was often asked about the likelihood of border distributions and kept pointing out the multitude of actors and processes involved. (Also how I start most of my presentations). Borders are complex!

/2

Everything needs to be synchronised. Especially since UK's border points are well... ports.

It's all obviously doable but it requires planning, synchronisation and coordination. And all this requires time.

So why is Shane saying the BOM is what UK Gov "hopes" will happen?

/3

Two reasons why we're less ready than the EU
1⃣ The sheer scale of it all. Much less changed for the EU than for the UK: legislation, guidance, certification, IT systems, the Tariff...
And yes, it was the UK's choice but there was still so much to do in such a short time
/4

2⃣ There was a visible difference in how both sides prepared: EU's planning and prep by relevant departments vs UK's highly politicised, centralised and ideological approach to border processes (frictionless trade, taking back control and cutting red tape)

/5

To me, it didn't seem like the process was led by HMRC, DEFRA etc.

Can you imagine the EU hiring a team of ppl with close ties to the Commission to come up with "alternative arrangements" for the EU-UK border? Outside of the actual departments that deal with borders?

/6

So I think a lot of time was wasted on that whereby the Dutch, French, Belgian and Irish customs focused on planning and testing and providing clear guidance to their businesses. Combined with no 1⃣ no wonder we got guidance late and run out of time

/7

Thankfully we got the 6 months of simplification on the UK side (although lack of guidance felt here too).

So if you're a business how should you prepare for crossing the border and dealing with all these new processes?

/8

A very simple answer and not entirely Brexit related.

If you're importing into a market, you read the guidance and follow requirements of that market.

/9

https://twitter.com/ColdChainShane/status/1347885441442316288

If you're importing into the EU (UK exports), you read the EU guidance. UK guidance is important as far as it talks about how you get your goods to the port (i.e. Kent permit, GVMS requirements as they are introduced).

But to get the goods into the EU - it's EU guidance

/10

That goes both for hauliers and logistics providers as well as traders.

And yes, it's normally the importer's responsibility to worry about domestic requirements. But under the current circumstances when everyone is confused. It's also important for UK exporters.

/11

For example, the @TradeHelpdesk tool allows companies not only to understand rules of origin under the TCA but also other requirements that might be applicable (e.g regulatory or labelling requirements).

/12

trade.ec.europa.eu/access-to-mark…

To come back to the borders, it's going to be a while until we figure things out on the UK side (I'm not even going to mention NI...😬) until then the EU guidance will be extremely helpful.

/end