GB-NI trade – RHA makes recommendations to NI Secretary

The RHA has outlined its key recommendations to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In a letter to Hilary Benn, they expressed deep concerns over significant operational costs and administrative burdens and a lack of clarity on business-to-business deliveries.

They call for processes to be simplified including on Just-In-Time goods, and for the industry to be involved in reforms on GB-NI trade.

Richard Smith, RHA Managing Director, said: “We are committed to working alongside you to help to produce durable solutions which work for all to enhance Northern Ireland’s economy - whilst maintaining supply chains and minimising the impact on business and consumers.

“The role of hauliers is critical to successful trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and a robust and efficient GB-NI supply chain is crucial to the UK economy.”

He said he noted the Secretary of State’s recent comments that there will be minimal disruption with ‘a combination of mitigations, derogations and the operation of the Windsor Framework in good faith’.

But he stressed that this hasn’t been the industry’s experience to date and there are real concerns about the steps businesses must go through to send certain goods from GB to NI.

“We are concerned that this will worsen with the changes due in March 2025,” he added and asked the Northern Ireland Secretary for a meeting to discuss the issues and the RHA’s recommendations.

Meanwhile the Government has confirmed that they “will not proceed with the introduction of ‘not for EU’ labelling in Great Britain on a mandatory basis on 1 October 2024.

“At the same time, we will develop legislation to apply ‘not for EU’ labelling in Great Britain in the future in a targeted way, if there is evidence of need.”

The RHA’s recommendations to the Northern Ireland Secretary in full:

Strengthening stakeholder engagement to include road haulage operators in discussions on GB-NI trade, including any further reform to the Windsor Framework.

Providing exemptions for Just-In-Time (JIT) goods, including a new declaration category.

Eliminating the £2 million threshold for manufacturers and providing an exemption or easement for businesses who guarantee non-EU destinations for consignments.

As part of the new Government’s wider reset of EU relations, change the default position from at risk to not at risk and require businesses to declare if their goods should be subject to customs entries.

Remove the requirement for United Kingdom Internal Market Scheme (UKIMS) and instead require the affected at risk business to create Simplified Frontier Declarations. For all other goods, a simple declaration of what is on the lorry should suffice (as has been happening for parcel movements with fast parcel operators to date).

Remove all the border declarations and move to a simplified business reporting model that uses either an Inward Processing Customs model or takes data from the intrastats already being submitted for customs exposure. Consumer movements with a delivery address in NI should all be considered free of any customs obligations on behalf of sender or receiver. This would level the playing field again across the industry and remove the need for the Trader Support Service (TSS).