BREXIT JULY/AUGUST 2020
FUTURE
FRICTION Delphotostock/stock.adobe.com
While government, public and industrial attention has been focused on combatting
the e ects of the pandemic, the deadline for the UK leaving the EU draws ever nearer
BY JAMES SELKA, CEO, THE MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES ASSOCIATION
We have become used to uncertainty
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over Brexit. It has become normal.
But that is set to change, as we
move towards the end of the
transition period and, to quote
Michael Gove, embark on the next
chapter in our history as a fully independent
United Kingdom.
Four years of trade talks are moving to their
conclusion. In the coming weeks, we should
start to get the clarity and certainty businesses
have long sought – whether or not we like what
emerges. However, we don’t know whether we
will have a deal, no deal, or something in between.
Signs of what may be to come are fi rming
up. There will be additional burdens related to
the movement of goods between Britain and
the continent, with a £705 million plan for more
border infrastructure, technology, and people,
which will not be fully ready before July 2021.
The EU says its borders will be implementing
full checks on imports from GB from January
2021, and there are fears of long delays for lorries.
There is no clarity on how the Northern
Ireland/EU border will work, or the movement
of goods between NI and the rest of the UK.
Not only are we leaving the EU single market,
the UK single market may also cease to exist in
its current form.
Frictionless movement across any of these
‘borders’ can now be discounted, sadly. The
worry is the extent of the friction and costs that
will be imposed, and the implications for UK
manufacturing jobs and investment. We could
probably live, albeit uncomfortably, with shortterm
teething problems resulting from relatively
modest changes to the way goods move. But the
sudden imposition of large-scale changes would
likely lead to long delays that
would become semi-permanent
and severely impact our trade
with Europe.
On other aspects of the
EU trade deal, we have no
information. There is no clarity
on Rules of Origin, changes to
which could disrupt and change
supply chains more decisively
than COVID has done. We have
nothing on quality marks. It is
quite possible that fi rms will be
unable to sell CE-marked goods
in the UK legally from January
next year. Inconceivable, maybe,
but that is the UK government’s
current negotiating position.
There is no guidance on the
UKCA mark. I hope that it will
mirror CE, initially at least,
and that any change will be
planned and agreed in advance
with the relevant sectors of UK
industry; and that we will aspire
for the UKCA to be a mark of
high quality, as with CE. The
Withdrawal Agreement between
the EU and the UK allows for
MTA chief James
Selka says that
government
must not ignore
the role UK
industry plays
when looking at
any post-Brexit
landscape
a UKNI mark. I hope it never
comes to that, but it cannot be
ruled out.
It is not only UK fi rms
that wish to see an end to
uncertainty. The US Chamber of
Commerce said in May that the
UK should conclude its EU deal
as a soon as possible ‘to remove
uncertainty that is limiting
investment fl ows and could
pose risks to its trade talks with
the US’.
The government must
conclude its EU trade talks
as it believes best meets the
broad UK national interest. But
manufacturing’s interests must
be an important infl uence in
that calculation. The industry
will be key to recovery from
COVID-19, and to achieving
the Prime Minister’s ambitions
that we ‘build back greener’,
‘level up’ the UK, and champion
global trade.
Manufacturing is up for
these challenges. But we will
be hugely better-placed if we
can rely on as friction-free
trade as possible with the
EU, our closest and largest
trading partner. With COVID
accelerating protectionism
around the world, and the UK
unprepared for ‘no deal’, that
message to government has
never been as important.
31/12/20
The Brexit transition
period ends at midnight
on 31 December
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