Since 1st January, the free-trade deal between the UK and EU has been implemented for importing and exporting goods. In this blog post we’re going to look at what the free-trade deal means for your clients.
What does a free-trade deal mean?
A free-trade deal encourages trade, mainly on goods and services, by making it cheaper. This is usually achieved by reducing or removing tariffs (taxes or charges by governments for trading goods across borders).
Trade deals also aim to remove quotas, i.e. limits on the amount of goods that can be traded.
What does the EU-UK trade deal mean?
60% of UK trade is within the EU or countries with EU regulations, therefore it was highly important that a free-trade deal between them was put in place, as the EU is the UK’s largest and closest trading partner.
Many businesses were thrilled to hear that no tariffs or quotas were to be introduced. If the UK exited the EU without a trade deal, this could have resulted in goods becoming more expensive.
What does the free-trade deal mean for farmers?
With the above in mind, importers and exporters will need to prepare for checks on product standards and will need to make declarations as if they were dealing with countries elsewhere in the world, resulting in an increased amount of paperwork.
Plants, livestock and some foods will also need special licences and certificates. You can find out more about this on the government website, here. If businesses are unprepared for this, it could result in problems, delays and further expense.
Due to the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the UK government have chosen to delay the imposition of full controls by 6 months; however, the EU began carrying out checks from 1st January, making it important for farmers to implement these changes now. HMRC have put together a checklist for businesses to ensure they have done everything they need for the new trading rules, which can be found here.
Rural Protect Policy Wording Update
Rural Protect will pay for any insured person’s loss caused by a claim for a wrongful act in connection with the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
As a reminder, Rural Protect offers free access and advice from leading law firm, rradar, who provide expert information and guidance on legal issues. This means your clients can benefit from the right advice on any steps they need to take through these ongoing changes.
If you would like to speak to a member of the team about the policy wording updates for Brexit, you can contact us on 01653 609090.
