Business First Summer 2017 Business First Magazine Summer 2017 | Page 22

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP Time to work together to address Brexit I by Pamela McCreedy, Chair, Chartered Accountants Ulster Society t is a time of uncertainty and instability for Northern Ireland. It’s not controversial to suggest that this isn’t particularly helpful in terms of growing our economy, creating jobs or providing the best public services possible for our people. The long period of Brexit uncertainty we’re currently going through is crippling. It’s important that our business leaders and political leaders work together to find a way through instability. Now that the General Election has taken place we hope that the Executive and Assembly can reconvene and we can address the questions posed by Brexit. As Chair of Chartered Accountants Ulster Society it’s my responsibility to represent the views of over 4,000 business leaders across all sectors in Northern Ireland. Brexit is a key concern Brexit is a key concern for our members. Of course, the business community will get on with things and continue to do business, but it is vital that our politicians, our public sector decision makers and our private sector leaders start working together to address the issues. We need a collaborative approach from business and the public sector. It is the only way we can hope to deliver a sustainable local economy and the social, health and education benefits that come with it. We want an approach which displays responsibility, accountability and maturity. The detrimental effect of not having a Stormont Executive to address Brexit planning is hard to quantify. But it stands to reason that we would be better served by a group of elected representatives working together to speak for Northern Ireland. Let’s take just one example. Even in a best case scenario, Brexit means the return of customs controls between the UK and Ireland. No matter what your view of the UK’s relationship with the EU, it’s probably fair to say that the removal of customer barriers through a Customs Union has been one of the big successes of the EU project. At the time of writing the fallout from the General Election is still settling, but it is worth noting that up to now one of Theresa May’s most clearly stated objectives is that the UK will be leaving the Customs Union as a result of Brexit. 20 www.businessfirstonline.co.uk That means that in all likelihood we will be back in the similar position to what we were before 1993 – a trade border with the Republic of Ireland. Even if the best outcomes from the Brexit negotiations can be achieved and there are no customs tariffs on trade between the UK and the EU ­ customs controls will still need to be in place at the border. This will be a problem for businesses, both north and south of the border. Not only have consumers largely forgotten about customs duties, many businesses have as well. Larger organisations will have retained some customs expertise because they are used to trading with countries outside the EU. It is the smaller exporters and importers, currently dealing exclusively with the EU, who will have the steepest learning curve. Of course, the future customs border won’t necessarily resemble what was in place before 1993 and the start of the Customs Union. Thankfully the security situation is not what it was 25 years ago. There are also new opportunities for electronic payment of customs and verification of consignments which just didn’t exist a quarter of a century ago. That’s one solution which our representatives could be pushing for. There is plenty of precedent for designing border controls which are efficient and not intrusive to trade. This will be critical given the high levels of food imports and exports between the UK and Ireland. Any delay could mean food consignments could be unfit for consumption. So what is the answer? Co­operation. Working together. There will need to be co­operation between business and political leaders in Northern Ireland and the UK. There will need to be co­operation between the EU, HM Revenue & Customs and the Irish Revenue. Local businesses, with the help of politicians and customs bodies, will need to work on their customs expertise. Working together we can ensure that Northern Irela