Carol Lynch, Partner, Customs and International Trade Services featured in the Irish Farmers Journal after speaking on a live webinar organised by the Irish Farmers Journal on what Brexit means for Ireland’s agri-food industry. Read Carol's extract below.
The extra compliance requirements following the Brexit trade deal has the potential to be just a prohibitive for exporters to the UK markets as any tariff or duty on goods, according to an international trade expert.
“Trade levels are still very low, but some companies have been woefully under-prepared for the changes brought by the Brexit trade deal in terms of the extra paperwork needed for customs documentation and SPS certs needed by the Department of Agriculture,” said Carol Lynch, who is the partner in charge of customs and international trade at audit firm BDO Ireland.
Carol added that the extra paperwork on trade between the UK and Ireland has the potential to be just as big a burden for Irish exporters as any tariffs. “Companies will never be able to remove all of the extra administration needed post-Brexit, but they will get better at doing it”.
Delays
Carol did note that all the delays at Irish points we’ve seen in the last week were related to imports of goods from the UK on to the island of Ireland. Carol added that she has more confidence in the ability of Irish food exporters to adapt to the changing regulatory requirements on trade to the UK market because many companies already have experience exporting to third countries such as the US, Japan or the Philippines.
Content adapted from the Irish Farmers Journal.
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