Tick tock of the Brexit clock for UK

GIVEN all of the talks of “hard” and “soft” Brexit all we can be certain about is that Brexit will happen. In fact Teresa May has said that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty will be exercised before March 2017. Economic forecasting aside, businesses must start to prepare for the inevitable break from the EU.

At the recent Tory conference the Prime Minister said that there will be a “great repeal bill” which will end the authority of EU law by converting all of its provisions into British law on the day of exit. This will be achieved by repealing the 1972 European Communities Act which gave direct effect to all EU law.

If the Prime Minister’s vision of “British companies enjoying maximum freedom to trade and operate in the single market and of letting European businesses do the same here” is to be fulfilled the starting point for businesses should be the review of policies and procedures.

This makes entire sense, especially given the “Marmite saga” where Unilever tried to simply impose an increase of 10 per cent across the board to Tesco for products as a result of the exchange rate and market uncertainty. Again, this should be a lesson to ensure that every business, whether a customer or supplier, is fully aware of their contractual obligations.

Every business is subject to a degree of regulation whether imposed by the contracts they enter into, UK national law or EU law. In light of the “great repeal bill”, it makes sense that businesses revisit their commercial contracts.

This review must extend to T&Cs, employment contracts, distribution and agency agreements etc rather than being solely focused on shareholder agreements and/or investor agreements.

Businesses will thus have an enhanced understanding of the practical effect of EU regulations. This knowledge will aid the decisions UK businesses take on amendment to contractual documents as well as wider aspects such as taxation and tariffs. Of course as a result of Brexit UK businesses will be more affected in legal terms than EU-based businesses but as the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.