Businesses can expect a lot more red tape, extra bureaucracy and additional costs in the event of a no deal, the government’s initial papers reveal.
Dominic Raab presented the first 24 of 80 papers prepared by the government to explain plans that would mitigate the impact of a no deal Brexit.
The papers contain a host of new regulatory regimes, doubling up of registration and extra processes for British business and consumers.
Before importing goods from the EU businesses will need to register for an EORI number, ensure their contracts and INCOTERMS reflect they are an importer, potentially engage a customs broker, freight forwarder or logistics provider and decide the correct classification and value of their goods, none of which they are required to do now.
Although big business may be able to absorb the extra costs, Lewis Goodall, Sky’s Political Correspondent, says SMEs will find them “much more onerous”.
Businesses are also likely to have to submit the same information to separate regulatory regimes where now there is only one. And Britain would have to establish and have in operation lots of new regulatory bodies ready to go on Brexit day, which is only 200 days to go.
The government will also be required to create a whole array of new arrangements for very complicated mechanisms for the banking and financial sector.
As Goodall notes, “the City had been thought to be an area relatively resilient to the impact of no deal, with lots of preparations in place to mitigate its effects. Officials appear to disagree, with no deal affecting the ability of the City to keep trading as it has in all manner of areas”.
But there is one piece of good news for British men. Sperm donors are likely to be in extra demand in the event of a no deal, with donated samples from sperm banks in the USA and Denmark likely to be cut off.
For that extraordinary detail and others, follow Goodall’s thread below:
THREAD: No deal papers- we’ve looked through so you don’t have to. This is what a no-Deal Britain might look like (caution this might take a while):
— Lewis Goodall (@lewis_goodall) August 23, 2018