Simple steps to help you when exporting to the EU

Towards the end of the 1^st Quarter of the new trading relationship with the EU, we thought it would be helpful to address some of the key issues that have arisen.

Correct and accurate paperwork

Without complete and relevant paperwork problems will occur at the UK border. The use of a customs advisor and or freight forwarder as part of your supply chain management is essential.

In advance of this, we advise creating an end to end model of your supply chain that can be verified and checked for compliance.

This then creates a ‘Master’ checklist that becomes an auditable and agreeable document internally and then by HMRC.

What is required to meet regulatory needs in negating tariffs?

• Rules of origin compliance to full system see notes
• How certified can be UK or EU authority
• Transport methods – if direct much easier, if split shipments many more complications as where landed may affect.
• Paperwork inclusions by Commodity code
• Cumulative change to an imported product – the rule of thumb is 40% change, that defines it as different

The most common issue advised to us to date are challenges around the Rules of Origin.

This is notoriously difficult, due to the highly integrated and developed nature of UK supply chains, and distribution networks.

Goods traded between the EU and UK avoid tariffs and quotas only where they originate from whichever side exported them. However, the requirements are driven by Commodity codes and rules surrounding ‘adding value’ to imported products, even if from the EU.

This has proven hard for many Businesses to negotiate as many products are a composite of goods from multiple sources even if a trade agreement exists the diagonal implications are not clear.

This is a specialist area and as a consequence, many UK-EU traders may find that accepting the cost of tariffs is a simpler option that investing in compliance structures.

If you would like to understand more about this at the moment we are running a series of workshops – to find out more click here.

To summarise
Start by mapping out what you do and break this down into individual steps.

This will allow decisions to be made on how best to proceed. Volumes do dictate options as often Tariffs payable may be less than the cost of Management to reduce or remove customs obligations.

If you have challenges around the Rules of origin, then it is probably advisable to speak to someone with some of the right knowledge and skills. At BHP, we can help you with this and help you to navigate to your best solution and select the partners that will enable you to continue to effectively fulfil your customer’s requirements.

Want more help? Join our Export Essentials Workshops. More details here.

 

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