Britain Seen as Unlikely to Have Electronic Filing for Exporters Immediately After a Crash-Out Brexit
If the United Kingdom crashes out of the European Union in 17 days, it has a plan on what its tariff schedule will be, but John Dickerman, head of the Washington office of the Confederation of British Industries, said that there's no answer on who will be ready to take the manifest information from exporters the day after Brexit. "That's a huge challenge," he said.
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"The British government has -- on a daily, if not hourly, basis -- been issuing notices on every conceivable aspect of trade you could possibly imagine," said Marjorie Chorlins, executive director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's U.S.-UK Business Council. But Chorlins, on a panel about "What Does Brexit Mean for Trade?" March 13 at the Washington International Trade Association, said technology that would allow exporters and customs brokers to submit information is not something you could buy in the next two weeks. "They’re not on the shelf out there to plug in on Brexit plus day one," she said.
Pat Ivory, director of EU and international affairs for the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, said the guidance from the U.K. is helpful, adding: "Will the actual systems be able to cope with the new arrangements? That's a really serious question ... . I would have really great doubts as to whether computer systems will be able to cope with this." He also said that there is not enough capacity at customs agents to help small and medium-sized businesses cope with the changes right now.
Dickerman said his members -- CBI is the largest trade association in Britain -- are hoping for a extension in negotiations with Brussels, but they think it "should be short, as realistic as possible and backed by a very clear plan."
The U.K. Parliament seems to be seeking that course, after rejecting the latest tweak of the EU offer on Brexit by 149 votes (see 1903120080), and then, after the morning program at WITA, voting 321-278 against ever doing a withdrawal with no deal (see 1903130070).
In May, the European Commission elections will be run, and there are no U.K. delegates on the list, because it was expected they'd be out of the EU by then.
Ivory said that while he understands the complications of that election, a two- to three-month extension of Brexit past March 29 is too short to manage the logistics of either setting up a new Customs organization, or to reach an agreement on a longer transition. He called such an extension "a very, very limited benefit to business. It just creates a cliff edge in two or three months. Our view is an extension should be for a much longer period of time, maybe 18 months to two years to enable a new political solution" in Britain. "An extension of two or three months is not adequate to even let the software systems catch up with the guidance notes."