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A Spotlight On: Northern Ireland
BY:
Gail Leeson
19 October 2021
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The NI border with the rest of the UK has been subject to particular flux in recent months. What traders on either side of the Irish sea need is consistency, sound compliance methods and clear published regulatory controls and guidance to support that cross-border trade.
Implementing a working regulatory structure between NI and the rest of the UK was always going to be challenging. The situation is unprecedented in both EU and UK trading history, so setting new regulatory boundaries without implementing restrictive borders will continue to take effort and compromise.
For traders it will mean work.
Traders need certainty, sound working methods and clarity as to the processes that will enable their goods to move seamlessly from one place to another. Good, clear published guidance from the authorities is essential. Traders will need strong guidance to provide the clarity that enables best practice and diligent compliance. The movement of goods should, at best, be slick.
Regulations and Published Documents
Northern Ireland Protocol
European Union Withdrawal (2018) Act
The UK and EU negotiating teams acknowledged the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland from very early on in the negotiation process for the Withdrawal Agreement. The necessity of safeguarding the 1998 Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement, avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, and protecting north-south cooperation was paramount from the beginning of the process. The negotiation teams had to provide a working agreement that could be put into working practice by those affected by it.
This solution was found in the form of the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland, which avoids a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland and should, in theory, enable the smooth functioning of the all-island economy, while safeguarding that Good Friday (Belfast) agreement.
The UK Government published the Command Paper in July 2020 - the document promoting the ideal of the provision of unfettered access for NI traders to markets in the remaining UK countries, with additional provision for GB trade into NI.
The provision for unfettered access perhaps has been the most challenging to implement. The promised ‘sophisticated’ systems to promote the smooth movement of goods were in the concept phase when the protocol was published in 2020
Implementation of New IT systems and software 2021
The new year saw the introduction to and implementation of many new IT systems (some still in development), when implemented in January 2021.
Traders using the Trader Support Service in January struggled to submit essential customs entry data into the system, even with the help of the TSS team. Traded goods had to be appropriately classified against the Tariff, and other essential data, such as weights and dimensions had to be submitted - challenging for the company moving a van load of maintenance equipment and tools to serve a maintenance contract in NI for example.
For traders unfamiliar with customs controls, it was very different and not easy. Those familiar with customs entries perhaps had a better idea of the data that the TSS system needed to have provided. Most reported having struggled.
There was later evidence that there had not been enough of the essential basic data input into the TSS earlier in the year to enable the link to the vital supplementary declarations to be made later in the year. Traders sailed past the 175 days regulatory cut-off date for making those supplementary declarations to HMRC and have found themselves non-compliant as a direct result. It has not been the smoothest of times.
What is needed now is certainty and compliance stability. Any further changes to the Protocol will entail further burdensome change to IT and record systems, not simply those operated by the UK and NI authorities, but by businesses that will need to make further amendments to their own IT systems to link up. This may affect all traders, from an SME amending their goods tracking spread sheets, to the large businesses that provide the logistics support to the movement of goods through the ports and over the border.
Port authorities, ferry and haulage companies have integrated systems that feed data through to each other to support those movements. Inaccuracies in software may only be detected when an entry record throws out an error message at a later stage, causing a delay in delivery or misadventure much later at audit.
HMRC will be publishing guidance shortly for GB companies that have the XI EORI without an established business in NI, and guidance will be issued directing traders towards re-applying for the TSS, which will be directly impacted by the implementation of the UCC regulation for established business necessity.
The NI border with the rest of the UK has been subject to particular flux in recent months. What traders on either side of the Irish sea need is consistency, sound compliance methods and clear published regulatory controls and guidance to support that cross-border trade.
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