Checklist for firms to avoid disruption to EU trade

THE GOVERNMENT has published a checklist for firms to help them avoid any disruption to their business now that the UK has left the European Union.

The checklist from the Business Department covers goods requiring extra papers, work permits and visas to travel to the EU on business, and applying to become a licensed sponsor to hire skilled staff from the EU.

Business Minister Paul Scully said: “The UK is finally out of the EU single market and customs union, and business is changing.

“Many businesses have made great strides to get ready for the UK’s new start, but we know some are further behind.”

Mr Scully said the Government “will be here” to help businesses navigate the post Brexit change and urged people “not to delay” making their final preparations. The Business Department said it has also launched videos covering new rules on trade and data.

As the UK officially left the EU on January 1, the chairman of the Leeds Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), Roger Marsh, told The Yorkshire Post that the region needed to “seize the opportunity” created by the nation’s new position outside the bloc’s trading structures.

Mr Marsh, a former PwC senior partner, said the “devil was in the detail” of the trade agreement which was announced on Christmas Eve and because the deal does not include an EU-wide arrangement for services, the impact on West Yorkshire’s vital professional and financial services sectors was not yet known.

But, he said, the 60 trade deals already set up, including one with the fast-growing Mexican economy, would aid investment in the North.

However David Kerfoot, the chairman of the York and North Yorkshire LEP, said while he was pleased a “disastrous” no-deal had been avoided, there would “undoubtedly” be more bureaucracy and paperwork which businesses did not need.