MAKING INDUSTRY WORK BETTER
Brexit: predictable uncertainty
How we’re working with customers to manage the challenges of Brexit Rebecca Darroch Ethics and Compliance Officer
After four years of uncertainty, we have now moved to a position where the terms of the future relationship with our largest trading partner are becoming clearer. However, the devil, as the saying goes, is in the detail; much of this still remains to be worked out if we’re to return to anything close to the seamless and business-friendly model that we’ve enjoyed for the last 40 years. All of which, as we move into a new phase in our trading relationships with the rest of Europe and nations around the world, continues to present businesses with a significant degree of uncertainty, especially in the short-term. For example, at a national level, there have long been concerns about the dramatically increased volume of customs paperwork that is now going to be required, together with questions about the ability of IT technology such as the Goods Vehicle Movement System to cope, with the risk of
Issue 42
extensive delays at ports, across both the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Longer-term, uncertainties over regulations and compliance with the manufacture and sale of goods on each side of our new trading frontiers will almost certainly create fresh problems and added costs for many companies. Back in 2018, in anticipation that the Brexit process was only ever going to become increasingly complex and disjointed, we established a Brexit Committee.
The goal of helping customers negotiate their way through the maze of often contradictory
