Re: Brexit a view from abroad.

Hi

In response to JBR.

We do not have the systems in place to collect Tariffs from the EU and all the Trade Agreements we have in place as part of the EU, neither do we have the staff in place.

This also applies to Immigration Controls.

We have, as yet, not even agreed the continuation of the Trade Agreements we have in place as part of the EU, there have been complaints made to the WTO about our actions in respect of these.

We have 130,000 Companies who will have to fill in the paperwork to export for the first time and no systems in place to advise them on how to do so.

We would simply grind to a halt, that is why we are asking for a Transition Period.

As regards the length of time it takes for Trade Agreements between Non EU Countries, I have been doing a bit of research on this.

Asean took 13 years to negotiate and much longer to fully implement.

We are not a big manufacturing Country, most of our exports are services and as these are not covered by WTO Tariffs, it is agreements on these which take the time.

Trade agreements are usually negotiated one or two at a time due to the complexity of them and we would be starting from scratch.

We have been unsuccessful in recruiting Trade Negotiators, they are in very short supply and for the last 40 years we have been using the EU Negotiators, who have decided to stay with the EU, even the British contingent.

When we leave a couple of examples.

As part of the EU, we have internationally accepted health and compliance and country of origin certificates which we use to export to non EU Countries.

We will need our own, and these will have to be accepted by those countries we export to.

Again, these will time to develop and be agreed.

Those who export to us already have these in place and we have accepted them.

None of these issues are insurmountable, but they do need time and money invested in them, unfortunately, we have not done so.

An example.

Zac and Derek, Polish, have two businesses here, registered at my house.

They export used car parts, primarily to the EU, but then for onward sale.

They also export direct to Non EU Countries with which we have Trade Deals with as part of the EU.

When we leave, without a deal, they will have to provide Country of Origin Certificates for each part they export.

A container may well contain 700 car parts, out it goes, no paper work.

The next load to go contains amongst other things, a complete front end from a Volvo XC 90.

After a lot of mucking about, it contains parts from 13 different countries, so that is 13 pieces of paper just for that one thing.

It makes the whole thing uneconomic.

The second example.

The biggest export locally is agricultural products, meat, egg and dairy products.

They go out now without any paperwork.

Every load which goes out when we leave with no deal will require Health Certificates.

One from the farm, one from the processor and one from the Transport Company.

We again have a shortage of staff to do this.

Andy, one of my ex staff, is the only one locally qualified to certify eggs.

He does a once a year visit and signs them off.

Every single load will require a Certificate from him and a test certificate.

This simply not possible to do.

It takes years to train someone to do that job.

As regards meat and dairy products, certification is done by those with an Advanced Haccp.

The on farm certificates have to be done by Vets, which neither of us are.

Each load will require a Vets Certificate, which will cost money.

There will be no more annual certification of food plants carried out by non certified staff under direction.

Each and every container will require a Qualified Officer Certificate.

This is simply not achievable if we leave now.

Both my ex boss and myself will do what we can, but we are not super humans, we cannot do everything.

All this information was available to our Government, unfortunately they choose to ignore it and trigger Article 50 before we were ready.

The reality is this, we are just not ready to leave.