So I have a feeling many companies are in for a rude awakening this month - the first round of supplementary customs declarations for companies importing from the EU
/1
Thanks to the UK Gov's easements there was an option to defer customs declarations for the first 6 months and submit the bare minimum of data at the time of import (usually done by the carrier, logistics provider)
/2
This was to be followed by a full, supplementary declaration up to 175 days later.
Which, you guessed it, is this month.
/3
Why would that be a problem?
Well, believe it or not, some companies didn't even realise that they were deferring customs declarations.
/4
Companies either didn't realise that anything has changed on 1 Jan or (more often) were not told by their service provider that their goods were imported under this easement scheme.
/5
Is it a big deal?
Well yes, cause companies were supposed to keep full records of everything that they imported. Not only all the usual details, invoices and paperwork but also full customs records.
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Meaning data that they don't normally keep (commodity code, value for customs purposes, origin etc).
Many have not done so.
/7
It's like doing your expenses or taxes for the last 6 months when you've not been keeping any notes or records.
/8
For many companies, it will be their first encounter with customs. And to those companies, I say - good luck!
(and contact me if you need help)
/9
I expect many imports will fall through the cracks. And HMRC will have the difficult task of balancing promoting compliance with the earlier promises of "prioritising flow over revenue".
Interesting times ahead.
10/10
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While I have often said that I don't believe the pandemic will significantly shift supply chains (which are formed as a response to costs, availability, taxes and a number of other factors) I was thinking it's likely to impact the approach to inventory management.
/2
The authors are equally sceptical about "supply chain resilience" but go even further when it comes to assessing the likelihood of impact on the type of inventory management - expanding storage space and increasing your inventory costs money.
While this focuses on the WTO, obviously parallels can be drawn between the WTO transparency debate, the wider transparency in trade debate and the recent discussions around the UK's trade strategy (FTA talks).
/2
I think when it comes to transparency in trade a question that's more important than "should we?" is "how to?".
But I also remember where we were in the Brexit debate around the same time and I think the potential impact, scope and trade-offs related to FTAs might not have been fully understood.
/2
To be fair, I recently had an opportunity to ask a few companies about their interest in and "wish list" for these FTAs (not a representative sample) and the interest and level of engagement was really low.
/3
We talked about overlapping agreements - bilaterals vs the CPTPP. @Liam_Sm_Y_th made a good point - that it's the traders that bring these agreements to life.
So...
/2
Combining these two points - with the overlapping trade agreements it's going to be even more crucial to provide UK companies with a good source of reliable information on market access conditions and requirements under all existing deals.
/3