Opinion: Getting It Right

getting it right

In comparison to other industries in the UK, there has been little complaint by companies serving or servicing the livestock feed industry, following the country’s final withdrawal from the European Union in 1 January 2021.

There was one intervention from a company closely involved in the manufacture and distribution of feeds for pets in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The company concerned reported, in its annual Report and Accounts, that the departure of the UK from the EU ‘has led to some difficulties in distributing to customers in the European Union’. However, the company went on to observe that these difficulties are ‘currently being managed’ which, after all, is what commercial companies do all the time.

Nevertheless, for both companies and individuals in the UK dealing with the EU, the impact of Brexit has undoubtedly been what one company called ‘substantial’. And one of the most immediate impacts had been what some observers have termed the ‘excessive bureaucratizing’ of trade between the United Kingdom and the remaining countries of the EU; in other words, the volume of paperwork that must accompany goods moving between the two parties. This is reported by companies large and small as being substantial. Individuals, too. report that significant amounts of paperwork have been demanded.

In one case that has come to the notice of this publication, this was required in respect of a single bottle of wine sent from the UK as a gift by a customer to a friend – not in a different country, but actually to Northern Ireland.

The new trade frontier between the Province and the British mainland was intended, as the Economist put it, as ‘a conflict-prevention measure, allowing Britain to leave the European Union’s single market without reimposing a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic to the south’. However, Unionist politicians, angered by the disruption that ensued, have called for the arrangement to be scrapped – calls accompanied by rioting youths, reportedly egged on by loyalist paramilitaries. The turmoil culminated with the enforced resignation of Northern Ireland’s First Minister, Arlene Foster who had reluctantly accepted the protocol.

Going back to first principles, it must be recognized that the European Union is the UK’s largest single trading partner, an agglomeration of (according to the estimate published by Eurostat on 1 January 2020) 448 million citizens and with an economy estimated at €13.5 trillion. It also sits, as it were, on the UK’s doorstep, unlike the much-trumpeted trade deal with Mr. Trump’s United States, the immediate prospects for which his successor, Joe Biden, has downplayed.

Given the circumstances which accompanied the UK’s decision to depart from the European Union, it is understandable that many of the

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conditions that surrounded the transition were not ideal for promoting trade between the UK and its former trading partners. Those conditions need to be addressed. It is fully accepted that, for a variety of reasons, commercial and trade between the UK and Brussels will need to be documented; the question is to what extent. That is the purpose of the proposed exercise.

The question of Northern Ireland’s situation as part of the UK (the only part of the UK with a physical border with a member of the EU) will also have to be addressed in the same terms as the enquiry into the documentation of trade between the UK as a whole and the European Union. Both parts of the island of Ireland are in much the same post-Brexit boat. The Republic of Ireland has been independent of the UK for a century but the UK is still the biggest source of Irish imports of goods and its fourth largest customer for goods exports. It does not need to be pointed out that, self-evidently, consumers in both countries share many tastes.

It is not clear as to the extent to which the Trade and Cooperation agreement that came into force on New Year’s Day 2021 will encompass the provisions of any agreement on limiting the extent of documentation between the UK and the European Union. The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement concluded between the EU and the UK sets out preferential arrangements in areas such as trade in goods and in services, digital trade, intellectual property, public procurement, aviation and road transport, energy, fisheries, social security coordination, law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, thematic cooperation and participation in Union programs. It is underpinned by provisions that ensure a level playing field and respect for fundamental rights.

What UK companies need to agree on with their suppliers and customers is the necessary extent of the documentation that those companies require for the conduct of their business.

All the forgoing is not to deny that there have already been efforts to reduce the amount of bureaucratic confusion generated by EU rules and regulations. As has been widely observed, reducing the cost of regulation for business is crucial for growth. Across Europe, governments and EU institutions are recognizing that removing unnecessary EU burdens is vital to maintaining the competitiveness of businesses. ‘We need a regulatory framework in Europe which fosters innovation, skilled jobs, and access to world markets,’ according to the Europe Fit for the Digital Age report from the EU Commission. Nor should the effort to reduce the impact and cost of regulation be confined to rules originating in Brussels, but rather it should apply to rules generally. Subject to commercial and other legal provisions, agreement between suppliers and customers should be always be aimed at ‘getting it right’.