Brexit Information and Updates

• Posted on Aug 09, 2019
• News, Press Releases

Appointments
Following Boris Johnson’s appointment as Prime Minister, Andrea Leadsom was appointed as Business Secretary (formerly Leader of the House, formerly Environment Secretary). The other members of BEIS Ministerial team are:

• Kwasi Kwarteng, Minister of State, “No Deal” Minister
• Nadhim Zahawi, Parliamentary Under Secretary
•  Kelly Tollhurst, Small Business Minister, Parliamentary Under Secretary
• Jo Johnson, Minister of State
• Lord (Ian) Duncan of Springbank, Parliamentary Under Secretary

Michael Gove has been appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (CDL) with the remit of preparing the UK for a ‘no deal’ Brexit.

Brexit
PM stated that the UK will leave the EU on 31 October, whatever the circumstances. The Government is ready to negotiate a deal with the EU, particularly on an alternative to the Irish backstop.

However, as the Government is committed to leaving the EU on 31 October, no deal remains on the table. The Government has pledged to step up preparations so that disruptions can be minimised. As part of these preparations:

• The Chancellor has confirmed that £4.2bn has already been allocated for use across the economy and they are working across government to use this as efficiently as possible.
• Preparations to leave the EU without a deal will not only focus on mitigating the challenges of no deal but also embrace the opportunities of a clear economic strategy for the UK.

Engagement with businesses
The government will be stepping up its engagement plans to help businesses prepare for leaving the EU, including one of the biggest public information campaigns (across TV, radio and online) so that citizens, communities and businesses can prepare for what will happen if there is no deal. BEIS are considering ways that they can step up engagement with businesses.

UK Government help businesses prepare for the UK leaving the EU via Online Tool
Gov.UK has an online tool to help businesses prepare for the UK leaving the EU. Businesses can use the Triage Tool here

What business may need to do to prepare for the UK leaving the EU:

• Explore what’s changing in their sector
• Gather information on specific rules and regulations
• Businesses will need to answer 7 simple questions to get guidance relevant to their business.

A new EU Exit Service for EU Exit Questions, covering Customs, VAT and Excise
The service uses a dedicated mailbox. It’s available to business organisations only. This is a temporary service designed only for EU Exit issues, and it will be reviewed when the UK has left the EU. If you would like further details on this mailbox, please contact Jane Montgomery at [email protected]

Temporary Tariff Rates
If the UK leaves the EU without a deal, then the Temporary Tariff Rates will be applicable on November 1st, 2019. In order to confirm whether the specific products imported to the UK in a no deal scenario will be eligible for tariff free access, you will need to carry out the following steps:

• Confirm the exact commodity code(s) your goods are classified as. This information can be found in the Trade Tariff
• If you require any further support on the classification of your goods, please reach out to HMRC’s Tariff Classification Service 
• Once you have confirmed the commodity code(s) of your goods, you can then look up which tariff rates will be applicable to your goods under the Temporary Tariff

New Interactive Market Access Map
The International Trade Centre has recently published a free analytic portal that allows users to Access, Compare, Analyse and Download customs tariffs, tariff-rate quotas, trade remedies and non-tariff measures applicable to a specific good in any market in the world. The web-application is interactive, simple and easy to use.

If you have any questions in relation to Brexit please contact Jane Montgomery – [email protected] directly. Jane is participating in regular conference calls with UK Government and has access to all departments on any questions you may have on Brexit going forward.