When getting to grips with Brexit gets mind-boggling

Despite the millions of words devoted to avoiding one over the past three years it now transpires that we do need a hard border after all. And not just hard, impervious and impenetrable. Well, that’s the case with the poor old bark beetle anyway.

This little fellow has earned quite a fearsome reputation for himself as a destroyer of forests and timber products around the world and the EU will stop at almost nothing to keep him and his kind out.

The problem arises in pallets. This innocent looking timber trays which are used for the transportation of goods throughout the world provide handy hiding places for the bark beetle and steps have to be taken to ensure that none are present. These steps including debarking, heat treatment and fumigation of the pallets.

Pallets which have gone through the necessary cleansing and inoculation processes receive the ISPM15 quality approval mark and are free to roam around the EU unfettered by customs or other officials. However, with the UK’s imminent – perhaps – departure from the EU there might be new headaches for exporters and importers.

If the UK doesn’t continue to adhere to the ISPM15 standard and maintain vigilance for non-compliant pallets at its ports, the spectre of the bark beetle using our nearest neighbour as a back door to the EU raises its not very pretty head. And the problem will be made all the worse if we do indeed avoid a hard border on this island as there would be no checks for rogue pallets coming in from Northern Ireland.

Until such time as the position as clarified, all consignments from a post-Brexit UK would have to be checked to verify the provenance of the pallets. So much for no hard border.

Another Brexit oddity may arise as a result of the UK landbridge – the route though the UK which connects Ireland with mainland Europe. A special transit regime exists governing goods transported from one EU state to another but which pass through a non-EU territory en route. This exists to prevent duties and tariffs being paid and reclaimed on goods which do not end up leaving the EU.

Certain documents are required to avail of this transit regime – not quite the letters of transit in Humphrey Bogart’s possession in Casablanca, but just as valuable in their own way.

Last year there were just 38,000 of these transit declarations made for Irish trade. It is anticipated that this will rise to four million post-Brexit.

But that mightn’t be of a lot of use. The problem arises because of the way a lot of distributors treat the Irish market; it is grouped in with the UK market and the two are treated as one for all intents and purposes. In many instances, a small percentage of a single consignment will be destined for onward shipment to the Republic of Ireland.

Certification mark

In these circumstances, import duty would be paid on the consignment on its arrival in the UK and would be leveed again on the portion re-exported to the Republic of Ireland. This could add more than 20 per cent to the cost of clothing imported from another EU member state.

And then there is the not so small matter of CE marking. This is the certification mark that indicates conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards and allows products to be sold without restriction within the European Economic Area (EEA).

Many Irish construction products could lose their CE Mark as a result of Britain’s departure from the EU, while imports could also be disrupted as a result of products originating in the UK and other countries losing their marking.

This situation arises because of the very close interrelationship between the two islands when it comes to all aspects of trade. Many Irish exporters actually have their products certified by UK bodies under current arrangements, but this will no longer be possible after Brexit.

These “Notified Bodies” assess the conformity of products before they are placed on the market. Once approved by the Notified Body, the CE Mark can be affixed to them.

At present, there are 174 such bodies operating in the UK and just seven in Ireland. All notified bodies based in the UK will lose their designation immediately following the UK’s departure from the EU. Some of them, such as BSI, have relocated their notified body operations to other EU countries but many of them have not taken any action.

Irish exporters relying on a UK notified body for its CE Mark will have to find an alternative if they want to continue exporting to EU countries.”

And, in another one of those strange conundrums thrown up by Brexit, companies with products certified by UK notified bodies will probably not be able to continue to export to the UK, despite the fact that the UK government issued guidance earlier in the year stating that CE Marks would continue to be recognised for an unspecified period of time until the mark is replaced by a proposed new UKCA mark. This is because the bodies which issued those CE Marks will no longer be authorised to do so by the EU.

And certifying organic status for food products faces similar issues and is likely to get even more complicated.

While the UK has indicated that it will continue to recognise EU organic labelling for an unspecified period, any regulatory divergence between the UK and EU is likely to see an end to that arrangement with Irish organic producers having to seek UK as well as EU certification if they are to continue selling into their largest export market.