BIFA, trade association for UK freight forwarders says that there is limited time to prepare for revised trading arrangements, after Brexit.
The director general of the Freight Association, said: “The sooner the government puts some meat on the bones of the various announcements, the better it will be for members of the British International Freight Association, which manage a significant proportion of that visible trade.
…… we share the concerns of our members whether there will be sufficient time to make the necessary preparations to facilitate and implement the revised arrangements…..
BIFA remains concerned that many of the details concerning the new systems still appear to be at the conceptual stage. We urge the government to provide urgent clarification as many questions remain unanswered for businesses in the UK, and in particular in Northern Ireland, where both the EU and UK customs rules will be applied, depending on the final destination of the goods.”
These matters are of particular concern to freight forwarding companies who have until now only operated within the EU, and therefore have no experience of making Customs Entries. Well established companies like R W Freight have been accustomed to dealing with extra-EU trade for many years.