British Marine’s latest update on Brexit

British Marine’s Senior External Relations & Communications Executive, Andrew Harries, provides an update on the latest Brexit news, including the work British Marine has been doing to support its members ahead of March 2019.

Progress of sorts was made at the October meeting of the European Council, where UK Prime Minister Theresa May appealed for assistance from EU leaders to help her reach a Brexit deal which would be acceptable in the UK. While the EU leaders and EU Commission agreed that insufficient progress has been made on the main three concerns (the divorce bill; rights of EU citizens; and the Irish border question), they were broadly understanding of Mrs May’s difficulties, and agreed to start considering what it was the remaining EU members would want from the future trade/relationship negotiations. There also appears to be some agreement on a transitional arrangement, to ensure there is no “cliff edge scenario” facing businesses. All eyes will now turn to the next round of negotiations later this month (9 & 10 November).

The fact that the EU has started internal preparation on talks about the future trade deal is good news. This will enable the EU negotiators to engage with these discussions as soon as the aforementioned hurdles have been passed. The preparatory work is, however, unlikely to offer much clarity on the precise content of a future deal, and it will likely fall short of what UK business is waiting for in terms of clarity or predictability. This is because the EU does not know what the UK wants. To be honest, we’re not clear at present on what the UK wants.

Mrs May still faces some significant difficulties in reaching an agreement on the three hurdles. She will need to improve the UK’s financial settlement offer (currently standing at €20bn). She will need to offer a more attractive package of rights for EU citizens in the UK. And she will need to overcome the problems of potentially creating a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This is not being helped by the ongoing dispute between parties in Northern Ireland which has seen no devolved administration in place since before June’s UK general election.
Finally, on Thursday the Bank of England (BoE) raised the interest base rate by 0.25 points (to 0.5%), which is the first rate rise in a decade. This is expected to be the first of a few rate rises as the BoE attempts to tackle the problem of rising inflation in the UK (currently at 2.8%), which has already hit wage growth and consumer spending power.

UK Government Updates
Despite a lack of real progress in the negotiations and the UK’s position on a deal/no deal scenario changing depending on which cabinet minister is in front of the media, the UK Government has been trying to engage industry and businesses with its planning. It has published a number of documents on the existing and future arrangements and is seeking feedback on these. Below are the ones that will be of most interest to our members and I would encourage you to have a look at these and provide British Marine with any relevant and useful feedback. A link to the documents along with a short synopsis of these is provided below:

• Customs Bill White Paper: This document explains the government’s approach to how the current customs, VAT and excise regimes operate for cross border transactions, and how these could be amended for the future trading relationship. The full paper is available at: https://marineindustrynews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/customs_bill_white_paper_web.pdf

• Collaboration on science and innovation – a future partnership paper: This paper outlines the government’s objectives for an ambitious science and innovation agreement with the EU. It sets out examples of where the UK sees potential mutual benefit in a close working relationship, exploring precedents for each. The full paper is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/collaboration-on-science-and-innovation-a-future-partnership-paper

• Government response to the House of Lords’ EU External Affairs sub-committee inquiry on Brexit: Trade in Goods: In its letter to the Committee, the Government responded to the evidence and recommendations from the Inquiry. This included the publication of a list of 58 sector impact assessments undertaken by the Government. This includes the UK’s maritime/ports including marine equipment. The full Government response is available at: https://marineindustrynews.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Response-brexit-trade-in-goods-1.pdf

There was an interesting piece of rather old Parliamentary privilege used to force the Government’s hand and require them to publish the impact assessments mentioned in the Government’s letter to the House of Lords committee. It is expected that the assessments will be passed over to the House of Commons’ Brexit Committee which will decide if they should be made public. We await the outcome with great interest.
The Government will continue to publish position papers and proposals for consultation and we will be seeking members’ input to ensure that we provide as complete an industry viewpoint as possible.

What has British Marine been up to?
It has been a very busy past few months for British Marine on the topic of Brexit. We have been fully involved with the Government’s engagement with UK industries and businesses, and representing the views and needs of our members throughout. We have:

• Linked up with the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to deliver joined-up messaging on key issues, including:
• The state of Customs Union Goods status on UK vessels post-Brexit
• The future of VAT Paid Status on boats sold across the UK/EU border post-Brexit
• Immigration – ensuring UK personnel can continue to travel quickly and easily across the EU; the UK marine industry can maintain access to skilled EU workers; border controls around the UK’s coast do not create a burden on marinas etc.
• Attended meetings with officials at HM Treasury (HMT), HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), the Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to highlight the industry’s key concerns and the potential negative impact on the UK marine industry if it is not fully considered during the negotiations

• Continued to feed into the work of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) and Maritime UK to ensure that members’ concerns are collated into the wider business and maritime position papers

• Prepared a response to the Customs Bill White Paper (a joint response with the RYA) – this will be published on the British Marine website on completion

• Fed into the Maritime Skills Alliance’s response to the Call for Evidence from the Migration Advisory Committee in order to advise the UK Government on the economic and social impacts of the UK’s exit from the European Union and also on how the UK’s immigration system should be aligned with a modern industrial strategy

• Contacted DExEU officials requesting details from the so far un-published Brexit impact assessment on the UK’s maritime/marine industry

• Hosted a visit from a Minister for International Trade at the Monaco Yacht Show in September to meet with members to hear about future trade opportunities and requirements post-Brexit

What’s next for British Marine?
While the UK’s future relationship with the EU is still as clear as mud, there is work that can be done to help businesses consider the possible scenarios. And British Marine has a role to play in that, to help members consider those important questions. Luckily for us, a lot of this work is being done by organisations with far broader shoulders than ours, like the CBI, of which British Marine is a member. So here’s a rundown of some useful information for members and what British Marine is planning for the months ahead.

• A “no deal” scenario – this is becoming an increasingly likely scenario, based on the current state of the negotiations and the time left to come to a new agreement. The CBI has published some really interesting information on what UK trade could look like should we fall back on WTO (World Trade Organisation) tariffs:
• Top 5 consequences of “no deal” Brexit
• Sector by sector: the trade costs of “no deal” Brexit (sadly this doesn’t include the maritime/marine sector)
• The trade costs of a “no deal” scenario

• British Marine is undertaking its own analysis of what the economic impact could be on the UK’s marine industry should we have to trade with the EU under WTO tariffs. We will provide more information on this when the study is complete

We have received steady feedback from members on what the key concerns/questions are around Brexit and the impact it could have on our industry. This feedback is invaluable and helps us direct our engagement with the UK Government and our own support for the membership. Please keep it coming. And as always, any questions, feedback etc. can be sent to me at aharries@britishmarine.co.uk