Brexit update – what happens now?
Written by Oliver Stockton, Managing Director, CILS
In short, nothing changes in how we operate or service your label requirements
The United Kingdom has left the European Union and is now in a transitional period until the end of 2020 while negotiations take place for the final future trade relationship.
The current rules on trade, travel and business for the UK and EU will continue to apply during the transition period.
New rules will take effect on 1st January 2021 unless there is a negotiated extension.
We have contingencies in place
In preparation for the UK leaving the EU, we put in place a number of contingency plans including significantly increasing all stocks of component materials so that we were prepared for all scenarios including a possible ‘no deal’ exit.
We are pleased that these contingencies were not required, however, the UK is still in a transitional phase and the final future trade relationship is unclear.
There are many potential negotiated outcomes including ‘no deal’ so we will remain vigilant.
To ensure we are able to react to any outcome, we remain flexible and will continue to monitor the trade negotiations closely.
We have dedicated staff to support you
We have recently completed a strategic recruitment plan with the intention of strengthening and increasing our customer support team to ensure we are able to cover all future trading scenarios.
This will ensure we are in the best possible position to support all our customers needs and to handle any increased administration that may occur as a result of there not being an agreed future trade deal.
CILS International is already registered under the EORI scheme (GB 435 9715 25 000) for exporters and as such, we do not believe any certification changes will be required for our products should the final trade outcome result in our products being treated as an export from the UK into the EU.
Our systems have been upgraded
We have a long-standing and strong working relationship with our logistic partners UPS.
As part of our preparations, in case a future trade deal is not agreed, we have upgraded our European shipping/invoicing systems ready to bring every European shipment into line with our current international exports. Not to mention, that the majority of our goods are shipped to the EU via airfreight, and as such we wouldn’t expect any delays at ferry ports.
We are fully committed to investing in label research, development and innovation that will help us meet our exciting business objectives within our industry.
As you may have read in our previous blog “Getting closer to our customers”, we have invested in two new office locations in Paris and Frankfurt as part of our European strategy. This will enable us to provide a new level of local support within Europe.
We are prepared for any future trading relationship with the EU and do not currently foresee any circumstance that will affect our ability to continue providing our customers with excellent service.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact your account manager and they will be happy to answer these for you.