Freight industry braced for a hard landing 10


Ireland’s preparations for Brexit are well advanced – or at least, as well advanced as they can be under the circumstances, says Irish International Freight Association (IIFA) president Tom Thornton. At an industry seminar in mid- September, Dublin Port outlined the steps it had taken, including reclamation of nine hectares of land and the setting up of Border Inspection Posts and examination areas. “Signage still needs to be completed, but otherwise it is pretty well prepared,” says Thornton. Rosslare, Ireland’s other major


ferry port, is also well geared up and the Channel Port operators and Eurotunnel have also announced their plans. As well as physical


infrastructure, the skills issue is being addressed too. “We’ve been running courses through SkillNet (the Irish Government’s skills and training organisation) to help people get to grips with the issues. The transport industry is ready, though I’m not so sure that the market is.” The number of companies that


have registered with customs has increased, and although there is still a gap of around 30,000 firms, Thornton estimates, this compares with 65-70,000 only a few months ago. “The truckers still have an information gap, but I certainly have seen an increase in interest from our own customers. Perhaps there’s a greater sense of realism that Brexit is actually happening, and will happen soon.” Truckers who believe that they


can turn up in port and somehow muddle through and get on a ferry might need to be disabused of the notion, for example.


Brexit will require a change in


mind-set. Currently, much trade between the UK and Ireland is done on an open book basis with delivery notes the only documentation moving with the goods. Moving back to a customs border will mean that invoices, including descriptions of the goods, weights and dimensions, will have to be raised at the same time as the goods are despatched and not all companies’ systems are currently set up to do this. A pro forma invoice might be the solution, Thornton suggests; this could be sufficient for a customs declaration, provided the final invoice followed later. Some documentation will


be necessary even if the goods are only transiting the UK from another EU country to Ireland, so to some extent it will be necessary to educate shippers in other parts of Europe – and the further east, the less the Brexit message has got through, says Thornton. It’s not at the top of the news agenda in many countries “and it won’t be unless we put it on,” in Thornton’s opinion. Another misconception that


Thornton has discovered in other countries is that Ireland is leaving the EU too – something that he is at pains to correct, of course. Some European suppliers may


not necessarily even be aware that they have Irish buyers, especially if they deal with an agent that covers Ireland as part of a UK contract. But it is sanitary and


phytosanitary (SPS) checks that are perhaps the most major headache, Thornton continues: “Dublin port has set aside an area for doing these checks, but


it is currently very difficult to gauge the volume,


because it all moves freely at the moment without checks.” While it might be argued that


nothing will change in terms of the physical composition and methods of production of UK food and animal products aſter Brexit, this is to miss the point that Ireland, along with all the other EU countries will be legally obliged to treat the UK as a third country for SPS as well as customs purposes and carry out prescribed checks as laid down in the Union Customs Code (UCC). Only a formal trade agreement between the UK and EU would change that situation. There is also the little matter


of where SPS inspections could be carried out on the Ireland/ Northern Ireland border as there is currently no Border Inspection Post here. Meanwhile, training efforts


continue, says Thornton. SkillNet has been running ClearCustoms courses, which aim to get people to the point where they could make basic customs entries themselves. There is no reason why a trader could not do this, provided they were dealing with a simple, limited range


of products, Thornton


considers, although clearly the more complex aspects of customs such as Inward Processing Relief are best leſt to the experts. “It all helps to spread the burden,” Thornton suggests. There are no complications


in Ireland of needing ‘badges’ to access port community systems, as in the UK, and Irish Customs has a very helpful classification department to held traders with any queries. Tom Thornton’s own company, Wells Cargo, is meanwhile busy


with the run-up to Christmas and has also been focused on getting Authorised Economic Operator status, so plans to find a UK agent and get involved in the UK/Ireland trade have been on the back burner. “We’ve also been doing a lot if sustainability surveys for customers, which has been an interesting and useful exercise,” Thornton adds.


Issue 7 2019 - FBJ >> 6 overseas


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Also, if people are in good, well-paid


jobs, they’re not looking to move at the moment.” Recruitment


of staff from remains a possibility


although they clearly will not be knowledgeable about the Irish market and carrying out background checks is a challenge. Training young people is another alternative but the freight industry isn’t seen as a long-term career


option by many people these days, says Cerasi. Indeed many people are finding that they reach a salary and career development ceiling and leave the industry (though a few do come back, finding that it offers challenges and stimulation not offered elsewhere). The setting up of the logistics apprenticeship in Ireland is an encouraging move but it remains to be seen whether this will alter perceptions of the industry in the long term.


Exporters wait and hope as politicians argue


Just as faint signs emerged, in mid- September that Boris Johnson was groping towards a settlement of the thorny issue of the Northern Ireland border and the wider Brexit conundrum, the shiſting sands of Westminster politics convulsed again and Ireland’s traders are no closer to knowing what the future will bring than they were three years ago. That at least is how it appears to


Pascal Koenig of the Irish Exporters Association (IEA). The arguments just seem to keep going round in circles; suggestions that the UK should remain in a strong and close union with the EU are shouted down by the ‘Leave means leave’ faction in the UK. It is possible that there might


be some movement on Northern Ireland’s future status and that there might be an Ulster-only solution to the ‘backstop’ with the province retaining some commonality in areas such as tariffs with the EU, but few people would like to bet on it. As Koenig points out, giving Northern Ireland special status might lead to Scotland, Wales and others demanding something similar. And while the British media has been focused on the turmoil in


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Westminster, everyone seems to forget that the European Parliament would have a say too and would need to ratify any deal. While factions in the UK might


see the country as a ‘Singapore on Thames’, this would be extremely hard to square with any kind of close trading relationship with the European Union. This, though, is politics and the IEA has to concern itself with the practicalities of getting Irish traders ready for Brexit. There has been a significant rise in the number of firms getting EORI numbers and there has been increasing interest in AEO status too, says Koenig. The new ClearCustoms scheme


– for which the IEA is one of the training providers - has seen “massive uptake” and courses for the rest of the year have been booked out. “Businesses are getting to grips with things and most are at least at the base level of preparation, although we still do have some concerns over micro-businesses,” says Koenig. Customs clearances haven’t been in most firms’ consciousness in Ireland since 1992; there are currently only about 1-2 million a year, and the potential figure of 40m a year if the UK crashes out of the EU is daunting. However, ClearCustoms would allow firms to do their own basic entries and help spread the burden while customs clearance agents gear themselves up and take on and train more staff. Irish Customs is currently rolling


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out a new IT system that was being tested at the time of writing in late September, so there should be enough raw computer power to cope. Irish traders can also take comfort from HMRC’s statement that it will not require security declarations for six months aſter Brexit, and maybe longer, though how far it and the UK will want to diverge from the Union Customs Code in future remains to be seen. As for sanitary and phytosanitary


(SPS) checks, Irish customs have promised a flexible approach with


roaming inspectors in Dublin port, which should avoid the need for trucks to pull up in one bay for revenue checks and then another for SPS. Dublin port is also working on a traffic management scheme to avoid backlogs of trucks building up in the Port Tunnel, possibly with a holding area further outside the city near the airport. Details are expected shortly. There may also be measures to prevent trucks that have not got their documentation in order from approaching the port. Arranging


checks in ports is relatively simple but not the


Ireland/Northern Ireland border. There would, says Koenig, need to be a border post for SPS checks, but the question is where would it be put; clearly having it astride the busy cross-border motorway is not an option. There may be technical solutions


to the Irish border problem, but they would have to be practical and legal. It’s good news that the UK is


staying in the European Transit Convention, which would allow Irish trucks to continue to use mainland UK as a land bridge to the EU. But IEA is also encouraged by the development of direct ferry services between Ireland and the Continent, along with the continued growth of short sea container shipping such as the new Rotterdam/Waterford route. “The direct services to the Continent might take a bit longer, but they are becoming more interesting, especially with stricter rules on driving time and weekend truck bans in some countries.” But while industry and the Irish


government is doing all it can to prepare for Brexit, there is little anyone can do about the politics. Koenig says that he is aware of a growing frustration in Germany and elsewhere with the situation and believes that politicians elsewhere in Europe “are beginning to lose patience with the UK”. There seems to be a basic lack of understanding of how modern, complex supply chains actually work


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