Countdown to Brexit: How are European Companies Preparing?

March 27, 2018 9:15am

Kenneth Persson
Senior Adviser
Swedish Customs (Sweden)

Godfried Smit
Policy Director
European Shippers’ Council (Netherlands)

Tim Cornell
Senior Expert
Cornell Customs Consultancy Ltd

Walter van der Meiren
Customs Brokerage Director
UPS (Belgium)

Johan Van Dingenen
Senior Customs Analyst
Nike (Belgium)

Mike Josypenko
Senior Director of Special Projects
Institute of Export & International Trade (UK)

Martin Meacock
Director Product Management, Customs Europe
Descartes (UK)

  • What do customs authorities need to deal with pre/post Brexit?
  • What do customs authorities need to do to manage the Brexit process?
  • What do EU companies need to address?
    • Is a soft Brexit possible?
    • Position of transport (air, road feedering etc)
  • Understanding the compliance requirements needed
  • How to deal with the expected workflow of having to make declarations for all of these inbound transactions in the UK
    • Implications on further customs arrangements (inward processing, warehousing transit)
  • How many companies currently have a system that will upscale and can deal with double the amount of custom entries?
  • Current free trade agreements the EU has and how the UK leaving the EU will impact current EU manufacturers and distributors
  • With the UK components not being able to count as preferential anymore, will EU manufacturers lose preference rates on some of the EU exports?
  • Is there a necessity to establish new supply chains with components coming from other companies rather than UK manufacturers?
  • How can companies hedge against the risks of delays at ports?
  • Anti-dumping – what happens after Brexit
    • UK’s relation with 3rd countries
  • Evaluating the different scenarios including hard Brexit and WTO with no agreement with customs border
    • Safety and security consequences
    • Other “duties” VAT/excise
    • Smart borders?