Rely on the most comprehensive, up-to-date legal content designed and curated by lawyers for lawyers
Work faster and smarter to improve your drafting productivity without increasing risk
Accelerate the creation and use of high quality and trusted legal documents and forms
Streamline how you manage your legal business with proven tools and processes
Manage risk and compliance in your organisation to reduce your risk profile
Stay up to date and informed with insights from our trusted experts, news and information sources
Access the best content in the industry, effortlessly — confident that your news is trustworthy and up to date.
Find up-to-date guidance on points of law and then easily pull up sources to support your advice with Lexis PSL
Check out our straightforward definitions of common legal terms.
Our trusted tax intelligence solutions, highly-regarded exam training and education materials help guide and tutor Tax professionals
Access our unrivalled global news content, business information and analytics solutions
Insurance, risk and compliance intelligence using big data, proprietary linking and advanced analytics.
A leading provider of software platforms for professional services firms
In-depth analysis, commentary and practical information to help you protect your business
LexisNexis Blogs shed light on topics affecting the legal profession and the issues you're facing
Legal professionals trust us to help navigate change. Find out how we help ensure they exceed expectations
Lex Chat is a LexisNexis current affairs podcast sharing insights on topics for the legal profession
Discuss the latest legal developments, ask questions, and share best practice with other LexisPSL subscribers
As the 29th March draws ever closer, a picture of what Brexit could look like is beginning to draw into view (i.e. unmitigated chaos). While much remains uncertain—particularly in terms of how the UK will exit the European Union—businesses should seek to clarify their own Brexit strategy to mitigate external confusion. Though the full implications of Brexit remain obscured, exiting the European Union may result in significant supply chain disruptions which in turn will affect your business, suppliers and customers. As if that wasn’t enough, these consequences could manifest in additional costs, compliance obligations and possibly delays. As a result, it is important that your business to consider and prepare for the impact of changes to customs and excise procedures, tariffs and rules of origin.
While there remains uncertainty over what any final Brexit deal might look like, if a deal is even reached, it is highly likely that Brexit will result in some supply chain disruption. This issue will primarily affect businesses trading goods with the EU, however, even those who do not should be aware of the potential impact on their suppliers or customers. Although the government will hope to reduce any disruption, businesses should be considering whether to take any steps to manage this risk.
The key risks to supply chain include:
In such turbulent times, it is tempting to look to other businesses for advice, or for a template of best practice. However, in the same way that no two businesses are the same, there are also no identical modes of handling Brexit—what works for one company may not work for another. As a result, it is vital to evaluate your own business to pinpoint specific areas of impact and those which require your most urgent attention. In this article, we examine the key risks to supply chain management as a result of Brexit and provide guidance for practitioners who need to re-evaluate their supply chain using our Brexit Management Guide and Mini Action Lists.
In the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario, businesses will have to apply the same customs and excise rules to goods moving between the UK and EU as currently apply to goods moving between the UK and a country outside the EU. This means that businesses may need to prepare customs declarations, either import declarations or export declarations, as relevant. Goods may also be subject to separate safety and security declarations. Similarly, the EU may apply customs and excise rules to goods received from the UK in the way it does for goods received from outside of the EU.
In practice, the following steps can be taken to prepare for and mitigate against these risks:
check contracts—you will need to ensure the international commercial terms (Incoterms) reflect a change in status, ie that you are now an importer/exporter
establish the correct classification of the goods and consider the impact of possible tariffs—HMRC has published tariff information and commodity codes needed to classify goods
Impact of tariffs
In addition to procedural issues, Brexit may result in the imposition of tariffs on imports and exports that were not previously subject to them. This includes products imported from and exported to the EU. It also includes imports from and exports to countries with which the EU has existing trade deals, eg South Korea, Israel and South Africa. Following Brexit, the UK will no longer benefit from these deals and there is a significant risk that, at least for a time, no replacement arrangements will be put in place. Not all products are the subject of tariffs, so businesses should assess and quantify the impact of potential tariffs.
Rules of origin
For UK businesses importing or exporting goods, the origin of those goods is crucial to their tariff treatment and whether they are subject to any other restrictions. Brexit creates significant complications for how the origin of goods is treated. EU rules and some free trade agreements allow origin to be cumulated, so that a product retains its origin even if it has undergone processing in or incorporates parts from other countries, eg a car part containing components from the UK, Germany, Romania and Spain would typically be deemed to have EU origin. Post-Brexit, in the absence of an agreement otherwise, UK components will no longer be able to count towards EU origin and vice versa. This means that a car assembled in the UK but containing a majority of parts from elsewhere in the EU might risk not being classed as having UK origin.
Businesses should check their supply chains to ensure that they know the origin of products they buy or sell.
Using our Supply chain disruption mini action list, companies can map areas of weakness and strategically plan.
To access our full Brexit Management Guide, please click here.
Free trials are only available to individuals based in the UK
* denotes a required field
0330 161 1234