Goods placed on the market under Union law before withdrawal

The UK and EU both agreed the need to provide legal certainty and minimise disruption to business and consumers. In principle, both parties agreed that goods placed on either market under Union law before withdrawal may freely circulate on the markets of the UK and the EU with no need for product modifications or re-labelling.

This is excellent news in our opinion.

Ongoing public procurement procedures

The UK will be seeking further reassurances about the ability of UK companies to bid into EU-level procurement exercises organised by the EU institutions before the date of withdrawal, and to be treated equally, without discrimination.

While we believe this is right in principle, we do not see how the EU will guarantee that such discrimination will not take place, given that we have already seen it happening.

Customs, VAT and excise related matters

Both parties agree that movements of goods which commence before the UK’s withdrawal from the EU should be allowed to complete their movement under the rules which were in place at the start of their movement.

We believe this will be very difficult in practice and look forward to seeing more detail on how this principle will be applied practically after the UK’s withdrawal so that the requirements applying to traders and customs officials at the border are clear.

Source: gov.uk