BREXIT
Brexit
Brexit has kept the BCF incredibly busy. Member companies will be impacted in every way by
the divorce, from regulatory compliance to customs and VAT and movement of people.
At the time of writing, it wasn’t known when exactly the UK will
leave the EU, even though the original deadline of March 29th
had been extended to the end of October. The wait is on to
hear what process will resolve the Brexit gridlock in Parliament.
BCF has presented the industry’s supply chains and products
to government, who has a deeper understanding of the wider
chemical industry than ever before, and how interlinked we are
to the EU.
Government have been
engaging with BCF on
a regular basis and,
as a result, BCF have
increased member
engagement - asking
questions about the
origins of their raw
materials, and plans for
a “no deal” Brexit.
Chemical
regulations
In the event of a hard
Brexit, or no deal Brexit,
one of the biggest
concerns is the UK’s
chemical regulatory framework, with fears that companies will
have to comply with two different sets of chemicals regulations.
The BCF’s Ellen Daniels continues to chair the REACH Cross
Sector Group for a second year, which consists of downstream
users of chemicals. The group meets three times a year and has
attendance from government departments including Defra, BEIS,
DExEU and HSE. The group has been a vital sounding board for
government ahead of planning for the UK REACH regulations.
Likewise, the Alliance of Chemical Associations (ACA), of which
the BCF is a member, wrote to Defra Minister Therese Coffey,
highlighting concerns around the proposed legislation, with issues
around data submission for registrations.
Similarly, on BPR and CLP, the BCF has been attending HSE-
led workshops, to feed into the drafting of the regulations
post-Brexit. The CLP regulations include Poison Centres, which
was copied across from the EU legislation, and will be highly
burdensome on industry. This is one of the few areas the BCF
26
can see a benefit to Brexit, as countries
outside the EU do not have to comply
with such onerous legislation. The BCF
has written to the UK’s Health and Safety
Executive highlighting major concerns for
the coatings and printing ink industries, following publication
of an independent study of new EU Poison Centre legislation
that demonstrated that the costs of implementation will put
the coatings and printing inks sectors out of business, if it is not
fundamentally altered.
The business impact
In 2018, Ellen Daniels and
Tom Bowtell met with
Richard Harrington MP, the
then Minister for State in
BEIS, with responsibility for
chemicals. They discussed
the various business
impacts of Brexit on the
industry, including rules of
origin, VAT changes and
WTO tariffs.
BCF also sit on BEIS’
CEEG, which explores the
consequences of various
Brexit policies on businesses in the chemicals sector. The CEEG is
a cross-departmental group with 3 ministers, several senior civil
servants and a handful of key industry people. The group is co-
chaired by Calum McLean, CEO of Synthomer, and the Business
Minister for Chemicals and includes only two trade bodies
- CIA’s CEO Steve Elliott, and BCF’s Tom Bowtell. The group
is an excellent forum for intelligence sharing and also used by
government to get feedback from industry on proposed Brexit
policy positions.
Brexit has introduced the potential for changes to customs
and VAT rules. The BCF has been working with BEIS to try to
ascertain rules of origin for members’ products, and as a result,
the BCF set up a Trade and Customs Sounding Board, to gain
evidence and case studies from coatings, inks and wallcoverings
manufacturers. Establishing product journeys for coatings, inks
and wallcoverings is key to avoiding World Trade Organisation
(WTO) tariffs in the future, as to classify a product as British, it
has to be proven that 60% of its value has come from the UK.
BCF ANNUAL HANDBOOK 2019/20