Where Is Brexit Heading Now?
Summary
New leadership in the EU following the EU Parliamentary elections (which the UK had to participate in and sent a large number of Brexit party MEPs to the European Parliament) has led to a two-horse race to lead the Tory Party and the UK, with the contenders being Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. Although “no-deal” is firmly on the table, the change in leadership in the UK and the EU might provide the opportunity for some kind of renegotiation (“what about?” I hear you ask, and to be honest, I have no real idea) that might result in the contentious issue of the Northern Ireland Backstop changing into something more palatable – allowing a deal to be agreed and a transition/implementation period to begin, with a sigh of relief from business! But even those “easements” introduced by HMRC are not being taken up by business – the BBC discovered in mid June that, in respect of Transitional Simplified Procedures (an electronic declaration process that is aimed at relieving the bottleneck at border and allowing for electronic supplementary declarations to be submitted in-land, after the event) only 17,800 firms had applied for the TSP as of 26 May. That’s less than 10% of the total of 240,000 firms estimated (by HMRC) to require the status by 31 October, when the UK’s latest Article 50 extension is due to expire. Even where importers are trying to prepare themselves, it appears that blocks are being placed in their way almost at the last minute by the authorities – “no, it is our policy that non-established entities cannot be a depositor into a customs warehouse, even though you as the warehouse keeper will be jointly and severally liable for the tax.” So what’s the lesson here; And in terms of the politicians, I would like to quote one of the publicity tag lines from one of my favourite films, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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