Businesses across all sectors have felt the impact of changing trade regulations since the UK voted to leave the EU in 2016. The trading relationship between the EU and the UK became more complex as a result of the UK taking on third-country status, rather than being part of the free trade bloc. 

While there have been efforts, particularly by the current government, to develop a more seamless trade relationship with the EU and mitigate the impact of Brexit, businesses still need to navigate new and evolving regulations.

Trade and Cooperation Agreement

The UK’s post-Brexit trade with the EU is governed by the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This eliminated tariffs and quotas, provided that goods moving in either direction between the UK and the EU meet stringent rules of origin requirements. These rules mean goods need to be “wholly obtained” or “substantially transformed” in the UK or EU. Failure to meet these rules means the goods may attract tariffs.

Sanitary and phytosanitary checks

Customs declarations are required for all UK imports. The Border Target Operating Model sets a risk-based approach for agrifood, plants, plant products, animals, animal products and high-risk food of non-animal origin. This mandates health certifications for medium and high-risk products and physical checks at border control posts. To simplify trade, in May, the UK and EU agreed to establish a Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Area, which aims to remove most agrifood border checks.

Despite this progress, the UK has repeatedly postponed the introduction of full controls. Physical checks on medium-risk EU fruit and vegetables have been postponed until January 2027, and work on the digital Single Trade Window has been paused for the 2025-26 financial year due to budgetary concerns. Businesses are responsible for making all customs declarations, correctly classifying goods, accurately recording origin and complying with safety and security declarations.

Neil Ormesher, CEO at Accounts and Legal, says that while a reduction in checks on animal and plant goods offers some relief to UK food exporters, advanced safety declarations under the EU’s Import Control System 2 have created “a UK-EU trade landscape marred by rising compliance costs and confusing tax implications”.

Importing from the EU into the UK

This year, entry summary declarations for safety and security became mandatory for EU imports into the UK, aligning with existing requirements for non-EU imports and UK exports. These declarations provide crucial information to combat illicit goods and facilitate risk-based border interventions.

The new dataset for the declaration will feature 20 mandatory fields, eight conditional fields and nine optional fields. Carriers and hauliers are legally responsible for submission, although an intermediary can lodge the declaration on their behalf.

Existing users of the Safety and Security Great Britain (S&S GB) IT platform, or those who voluntarily submit EU import declarations, do not need to change their systems, but they can benefit from the reduced data requirements. Businesses that are new to submitting declarations must register for S&S GB using a Government Gateway account and a GB EORI number.

In short, businesses are responsible for:

• making customs declarations for all goods exported from and imported into the UK;
• checking if special rules of licensing or certification apply to goods such as agrifoods or chemicals;
• classifying goods and recording their origin. Incorrect commodity codes or inaccurate recording of origin in customs declarations may lead to incorrect amounts of tax or duty being charged; and
• entry summary declarations for EU imports, following the EU and UK requirements on safety and security declarations.

Northern Ireland exceptions

The only land border between the UK and the EU is between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. There are practical and political reasons for ensuring trade can continue without hindrance across this border. This is where the Windsor Framework – the post-Brexit agreement between the EU and the UK to adjust the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol – comes into play. The main purposes of the framework are to ease trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, protect the EU’s single market and maintain an open border on the island of Ireland, as required by the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

Key elements of the Windsor Framework include:

• Green lane/red lane system: this establishes simplified procedures (a "green lane" or Internal Market Scheme) for goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that are destined to remain in Northern Ireland, reducing checks and paperwork. Goods considered "at risk" of moving into the EU Single Market follow a "red lane" with full customs procedures and checks.
• Retail movements: this simplifies the movement of retail agri-food goods, such as supermarket products, from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, allowing them to follow UK public health standards.
• Medicines: it ensures that the UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency licenses medicines for the whole UK market, guaranteeing that the same drugs are available in Northern Ireland at the same time as the rest of the UK.
• Stormont Brake: this mechanism allows the Northern Ireland Assembly to seek to stop the application of new or amended EU goods laws in Northern Ireland if there is significant cross-community concern.
• Unfettered access: it removes the need for most export declarations on qualifying goods moving directly from Northern Ireland to Great Britain.

Navigating the changes

Ormesher says that to effectively navigate variable trade regulations involving the UK and the EU, businesses need to “shift analytics perspectives away from long-term planning and towards real-time analyses”.

“As finance teams can no longer plan operations around a singular set of trade rules, focus must divert to monitoring minor adjustments as global trade tensions shift,” Ormesher advises. He suggests monitoring this through the use of analytics processes designed to keep track of developments in real time.

“For example, [finance teams can create] modelling scenarios that consider how one trade development is likely to affect operations in the UK alongside each individual EU nation that the business intends to pursue trade with," he says.