Thread by @DanielLambert29

This is about as clear as the wine trade can make it. @brexit is destroying the UK wine industry and bearing in mind the UK was the main international hub pre Brexit the pathetic reply from @Jacob_Rees_Mogg demonstrates just how out of touch he is. Now the facts.

https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1603532409089163264

The barriers to trade this wine trade professional refers to is the endless paperwork and costs it incurs. To be clear pre-Brexit their just one document an EAD for EU and three for non EU.

Today for EU there are 5 documents (proforma, EU EAD, EU MRN, UK CDS Entry with MRN UK and UK ARC) which all require specialist brokers or trained people to complete. To be able to complete and do the UK documents you need the following…

Registration with HMRC for CDS, Badge Numbers for RORO access, HMRC deferment Account, HMRC warehouse keeper number for both import and export, AWRS approval, Wowger registration for sale of alc, Access to HMRC to DDES for excise payment management, HMRC account for UK EMCS…

All of this just to maintain the flow, and trust me all of the above are not easy systems to be granted, your business must be able to prove its profitable to HMRC and have a perfect credit rating. So no wonder like me this guy was pissed off.

The government are trying their very best to make wine importation as difficult as possible and it’s no wonder EU companies don’t want to buy back UK bottled wine. They don’t want it because it’s a fu*king nightmare to deal with.

Then this guy also touched on the change of excise duty requirements. Again he is right. Currently we have three main levels of wine taxation. These are coded as 411, 413 and 415. This covers 99% of all wine. For CDS lovers just add an X.

So currently it’s very simple to charge the correct level of taxation, Mogg reply was dismissive “because it’s a treasury decision” to add 27 bands so that makes it ok! Erm no it doesn’t make it ok, it does make it unworkable however, and he knows it.

So when the speaker said they have taken something that worked well and broken it he was absolutely correct. But because these current Tories know #BrexitReality is killing the UK economy they lie at will.

So hopefully the electorate will force change back in the right direction. Moreover when you see your wine has increased by £2-£4 per bottle you can thank Brexit and the government for making importing so much more difficult whilst incurring unnecessary costs the public pays.

Finally don’t take my word for how bad Brexit is for the wine trade and how badly thought through the Alc reform proposal is. As a member of @wstauk like the speaker, our trade body has put forward endless factual documents explaining to government why they are wrong.

Moreover we should all remember that 99.1% of all wine in the UK is imported, of that 66.9% is from the EU and 9% is from Aus/Nz. So apart from the green issues, EU wine is preferred in the UK, and global wine production couldn’t cope with this changing dramatically. #facts.