The Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart, spoke positively of the Brexit transition in a live talk but emphasised that businesses will need to prepare for the transition regardless of what deal is agreed.
The Secretary of State urged people to “act now” and said that there were a number of ways the UK Government could help with the adjustment to the Brexit transition.
EU Transition Discussion with UK Government from Business News Wales on Vimeo.
“Businesses will still need to prepare, whether or not there is a deal,” Mr Hart said in the talk chaired by Liz Maher, Director of South Wales based independent VAT specialists, Centurion VAT.
In the discussion, Mr Hart said he was confident that border infrastructure could be met.
“I think that the possibility is of a reasonable deal. The sticking points remain around fisheries, level playfield and governance, I think,” he continued.
“They’re not only complicated but they’re also quite iconic so there’s a lot of politics around trying to make sure that the differences are ironed out in the time available.”
Claire Wilson of HMRC also joined the talk to discuss practical steps businesses and those trading with the EU could take during the transition period.
“For goods moving between GB and EU, there will be border controls introduced from the 1st January,” Ms Wilson said, adding that there would be full controls from all goods from 1st July.
Ms Wilson said that HMRC will be writing to VAT-registered traders about the actions they need to take during the transition.
She added that the Cabinet Office is launching a cross-government customer forum.
“You can come in and ask questions of various different departments, it’s a single landing page and you can ask your question from that point in,” she said.
Businesses looking for further information can visit https://www.gov.uk/transition
