We held our first Trade Community Call exclusively to give our Associate Members the inside track on the latest Brexit developments.
Associate Members heard from and put their questions direct to our Food and Sustainability Director, Andrew Opie, Director of the Northern Ireland British Retail Consortium, Aodhan Conolly, and Trade Policy expert, William Bain on retailers’ preparedness as the clock ticks down to January 1.
What’s happening right now?
We were able to share our unique insight into the current position of the UK Government and the EU from our regular meetings with No. 10, BEIS, Defra, the NI Office and connections in Brussels.
The likelihood of striking a deal by the Autumn is somewhat in the balance with some key issues – for example on fisheries and State Aid – still needing accommodation on both sides.
The longer it takes to get agreement on these key issues, the less time there is to address outstanding issues such as labelling and compliance on imports and exports, that will significantly impact UK retailers.
These discussions cannot be left to the last minute and we must see progressive agreement week by week, in the eight weeks remaining in the process.
Five key challenges for UK retailers
We talked about the five key challenges for retailers, with less than five months to go until we leave current economic structures:
1 No deal on tariffs
2 More red tape, with considerable and costly new requirements on customs declarations
3 Friction at the NI border - even with easements and concessions it will cost more to transport goods from NI to GB
4 Lack of time to prepare for the wide-ranging changes with incomplete guidance
5 Capacity – a challenge for retailers of all sizes who are dealing with the ongoing fallout from COVID19
What’s going on in Northern Ireland?
We were able to give the latest insight from our recent meeting with Michael Gove on new announcements and developments including the TSS scheme, financial support for GB/NI business, and the new ‘supermarket solution’ – more on this to come.
Our member intel tells us we could be heading for a perfect storm in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is vulnerable to the economic shocks caused by COVID, with more volatile footfall, greater reduction in consumer spend during times of recession and squeeze on profitability.
It’s a very simple equation – if additional costs caused by Brexit outweigh profit margins, either the product or the business model becomes unviable.
Brexit is a large and complex jigsaw and we need all the pieces in place for retailers to be able to properly prepare for and guard themselves against the shocks to come, particularly in Northern Ireland.
Demand for your support
There’s real demand from UK retailers for support to ensure their Brexit preparedness.
They don’t have the capacity or necessarily the expertise to do it all in-house – and this is where we know our Associate Members can help.
If you’d like to chat to us about how you can best support retailers at this time, get in touch with the team at partnerships@brc.org.uk
And keep an eye on our Brexit Hub for the latest information and updates.