Customs Red Tape (Ireland)

There is a lot of chatter about the new processes required for goods movements between Ireland (north and south) and its neighbour, Britain. This blog does not focus on Customs, Tariffs or VAT.

Irish Revenue information on Imports from Britain is here. Note the requirement for an Entry Summary Declaration (ENS). The ENS is a safety and security entry summary declaration needed for moving goods on ‘roll-on, roll-off’ lorries and other goods vehicles.

An emergency code (number) was supplied initially by Irish Revenue to allow importers temporarily bypass some of the documentation rules on border controls. This is a facilitation and is temporary.

Further information is accessed from this Irish Revenue location – here.

The Irish Times reports again this morning re the rules of origin matter (Peppa Pig etc) –

Government officials have raised queries with the European Commission Commission about Brexit “rules of origin” restrictions that are disrupting supply chains of foods and other products coming from mainland Europe to Ireland.

Rules of origin are designed to prevent a UK company buying cheap products from a non-EU country and repackaging and rebranding them and then selling them into the EU tariff-free.

The restriction is, however, preventing some products moving between two EU countries where the products are repackaged in UK distribution centres before being supplied into the Irish market.

Under the EU-UK trade deal, signed before Christmas, goods that are unpacked and repacked in the UK – and not subject to further manufacturing – face customs taxes, or tariffs, when reimported back into the EU.

The rules have led to severe disruption in supply chains and food shortages and empty shelves in Irish retail outlets of UK supermarket chains, in the Republic and Northern Ireland, and delayed the shipment of other goods.

The Irish Times notes – government officials warned a fix was unlikely –

Government officials have made “technical inquiries” with officials within the commission “to see what the possibilities are”, said one Government source, though they warned that finding a fix for the issue was unlikely.

“This is Brexit. The UK has left the single market and the customs union. They are a third country. That is the problem,” said the source.

“If a good comes through England, that doesn’t mean that it should come under these rules, but if they are repackaged, there is a problem. That is not transit.

“This is an issue which was unforeseen or not foreseen to the extent to which it should have been.”

My Peppa Pig blog post concerns re-distribution. But even then, EU Commission clarification would be required,