Education and accessing correct information are critical for businesses importing goods into Britain amid rising regulatory change and complexity, trade experts said on a webinar hosted by the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade yesterday (25 September).
The need to understand how to make best use of digitalised border systems and trade processes was also highlighted.
The webinar coincided with the launch of the Chartered Institute’s Imports Advisory Practice and a new report on ten recent and upcoming changes that will affect importers in 2025.
Information is ‘crucial’
Sylwia Nowak, the global trade technology manager at Collins Aerospace, said that businesses have been faced with “a lot of changes since Brexit” and said that staying informed was key to compliant and successful trade.
“The crucial point is that you need to access the right and specific information,” she said, adding that understanding how your products are made was also key to using the correct commodity codes in new border IT systems like the Customs Declaration Service (CDS).
Ilona Kawka, the Chartered Institute’s Imports Advisory Practice lead, said that traders need to stay abreast of recent and upcoming changes that will affect compliance requirements for businesses importing goods in 2025 and beyond.
“In our new report, we cover various upcoming changes, like CDS, safety and security declarations and transit.
“There are also quite complex areas like environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements, carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAMs), deforestation, EU Digital Product Passports and EU Customs Reform. The report tries to explain these in an easy-to-digest way.”
‘Pragmatic’ approach
Grace Thompson, the Chartered Institute’s UK public affairs lead, said the new government had so far indicated that it will take a “pragmatic” approach to trade changes, saying that there has so far been “continuity” with the new requirements introduced by the previous administration.
However, she pointed out that changes continue take place, citing recent postponements to checks on fruit and vegetable imports, as well as a delay to new customs requirements for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework.
“We’re seeing a balance at the moment of new consultations on strategic policy measures going forwards with a pragmatic approach to measures that were due to come in this year. These measures are being pushed back until there’s more of an overview on how they’re going to impact industry.”
Education, education, education
In response to a poll held during the webinar, over a third (34%) of the delegates said that the government should prioritise ‘education for businesses’ as it prepares to publish its industrial strategy next month.
This was followed by ‘reducing regulatory red tape’ (32%) and ‘digitalised interoperable systems’ (24%).
Thompson said she wasn’t surprised that businesses were looking for the government to prioritise education, pointing out that prime minister Sir Keir Starmer had put an emphasis on this area during his speech at the Labour Party’s annual conference this week.
She added that overseas businesses in the EU were also calling for educational support to navigate new rules for trading into Britain.
Support for all businesses
Kevin Shakespeare, the director of advisory services at the Chartered Institute, said that the new Imports Advisory Practice was being launched in recognition of the desire from importers for there to be more educational support around new trade rules and processes.
“We’re very conscious at the Chartered Institute of the importance of imports,” he said.
“Importing is, in theory, complex, but it is very important to the UK economy, businesses and supply chains.
“We want our support to be for all sorts of businesses – large, medium and small, as well as women-led businesses in an inclusive approach.”
Environmental focus
Kawka also noted that environmental concerns are becoming more of a priority for importing businesses.
“Climate is becoming a major concern for businesses, much like Brexit has been in recent years,” she said.
“There is pressure from the government and regulators, as well as consumers, for businesses to adopt more environmentally sustainable practices to reduce carbon footprints and to comply with emerging climate-related regulations.”
She added that climate-related supply chain disruptions are also already becoming an increasingly prevalent issue for businesses.
