[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by jonbxx

I can give you a simple example of the impact of leaving the EU and customs union that will have an impact...

Switzerland is in the EU single market but not in the customs union. For every export to Switzerland from the EU, a 'preferential certificate of origin' is required which states that the goods were made or significantly processed in the EU and therefore covered by the Switzerland/EU trade agreements. This ensures that the correct tariffs, if any are applied to the goods on import.

If and when we leave the customs union, all exports to the EU from the UK will require either a preferential (deal) or non-preferential (no deal) certificate of origin to ensure that the goods originated in the UK and not imported from a third country and shipped through the UK to the EU, thus importing to the EU 'through the back door'.

Certificates of origin are not an EU thing, it is an internationally agreed instrument of global trading.

The company I work for estimates certificates of origin take 3-5 'man minutes' per order to complete. So, for a 1000 orders, that's 50-83 man hours. That's 2 additional head count for a small number of orders.

At present, 45% of our exports go to the EU and will need this certification where they didn't before.

On the plus side, that's additional employment. On the minus side, that's a significant increase in costs to an exporter meaning they will either have to take the cost or increase pricing to maintain margins, making our good less competitive on the global market.

Ignoring every other tariff and non-tariff trade barrier, something simple like certificates of origin will have an impact...

But you are simply describing a problem which can be resolved by having a trade and services agreement, incorporating a bespoke customs agreement for the UK. It’s not really what I would call rocket science. It is simply a matter for negotiation.