BREXIT\\\


The fi rst few weeks and months aſt er


the UK performs Brexit


will be what Europa managing director Andrew Baxter describes as “a lively period”. It will be an uncomfortable time for many companies,


especially freight


forwarders, as they grapple with the new complexity of exporting to France and the rest of Europe across a customs border. It could even lead to some forwarders going bust as they get saddled with extra demurrage and truck waiting costs while paperwork issues are sorted out. Shippers have reacted with


varying degrees of urgency to the need to provide additional information from January 2021, including


commercial invoices,


commodity codes and EORI numbers, says Baxter. “It’s diffi cult to say right now how ready they will be come January; people do tend to leave things until the last


in favour of Brexit during the 2016 referendum; there is even a famous picture of Boris Johnson leaning out from the cab of one of his trucks. Does he now regret any of this? “No, I defi nitely think Brexit


was the right thing to do. Leaving the EU will ultimately be a very good thing as it is a fundamentally fl awed concept. It’s short-term pain for long-term gain.” Baxter predicts that the Euro will


one day implode disastrously, and that the UK will be proved to have made the right move in distancing itself from the mess. The single currency is a misconceived idea, as it has served to enrich major, wealthy exporters such as Germany at the expense of poorer southern European EU member states. It has prevented those countries from devaluing their currencies in order to make their exports more attractive and has


However, Baxter sees the Euro as part of Brussels drive for a never- ending centralisation of power. Maybe, when the Euro has


“blown itself to pieces” and when and if the European Union has returned to its original concept as primarily a trading bloc, perhaps the UK could consider rejoining the EU, but not before, says Baxter. Returning to the immediate


issue of how the freight industry will cope with Brexit, Baxter believes that Europa is better placed than most to deal with the impact. It is recruiting around 45 people for customs-related activities, including a 16-strong dedicated team at its Dartford headquarters, along with others at all its 13 locations in the UK. Europa has also opened an offi ce in Calais and another in Ostend, Belgium to deal with customs clearances. Setting these offi ces up involved considerable time and expense, but will be worth it in the long run, says Baxter. To help UK exporters trade


minute. But I don’t think, for our customers, it will end up with them having orders that they can’t send. We can help with issues such as classifi cation. In principle, it’s


relatively straightforward,


but in practice the complexity is staggering. And I do think there is the potential for some forwarders to get into a real muddle; this isn’t something you can wing. This is probably the biggest upheaval to our sector in my entire working life and, yes, I think that some forwarders could go bust as a result.” Some hauliers could also


struggle, although they will presumably send the bill for any extra waiting time to their forwarder customers – provided, of course, that they haven’t gone out of business. This prediction of chaos and


turmoil is all the more remarkable, as Baxter campaigned vigorously


allowed Germany in particular to export more, while at the same time restricting its own imports. Baxter sees the Euro as a


misconceived attempt to create a political and economic union in Europe that will ultimately fail as countries are forced out of it and its fi nal destruction will be a bigger fi nancial earthquake than the banking crisis of 2008. Already, Europe is the world’s slowest-growth region, a fact not unconnected with the EU’s attempts at centralisation, in Baxter’s opinion. It is true that the Euro and


the European Union are not the same thing, and the UK has never participated in its currency


experiments, apart


from its brief but disastrous membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism that led to the downfall of John Major’s government in the mid-1990s.


with the EU aſt er Brexit, it has also launched EuropaFlow, a DDP (delivered duty-paid) service to smooth the passage of cross- border freight. The primary source of delays to shipments are waiting for importers to pay VAT, but EuropaFlow uses an EU VAT system known as Regime 42 to avoid this. Under Regime 42, VAT is zero-rated and the import declaration is made while the vehicle is crossing the Channel. In eff ect, Regime 42 preserves the pre-Brexit Single Market zero- rating of VAT, and there is no need for the importer to be contacted. The shipper pays for the clearance and any duty. Regime 42 was in fact originally


conceived for importing third goods into EU countries through another EU country – from China to Germany via Rotterdam, for example. It is predicated on the principle that, in such a situation, Dutch customs would not be collecting VAT on


behalf of


Germany and would, in eff ect, ‘wave through’ consignments destined for that country. It can though be used for


importing from the UK into Germany, or Italy, via France or Belgium. It cannot be used for importing into France direct


22 >>


Issue 8 2020 - Freight Business Journal


25


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36