Many Dutch entrepreneurs are not that concerned with the upcoming Brexit yet. Whether it’s from the feeling that you can’t do anything about it anyway, that it might not happen at all or that we don’t know anything for sure yet anyway. But that’s like doing nothing when you know your car is probably not going to pass the next MOT. You can just wait until it falls apart, get it fixed now or buy a new one. And the same goes for your business and Brexit.
Who should already take this into account, what should you start doing and when does it go into effect? Because nothing has been officially approved yet by the UK and all EU member states on both how we break up and what it will look like after Brexit. I will answer those questions. Whatever happens, doing business with the UK in the future will hang somewhere between doing business with China or with Germany in terms of difficulty. So do import duties, VAT, much longer customs control, export permits, less favorable tax regulations or if you import, be responsible for CE standardization yourself.
Who: If you do any business with the UK in any form, or plan to do so in the coming year. A few examples from my clients and circle of acquaintances, a transport company that transports goods to England on a daily basis, a diaper company that imports diapers from Scotland, an employment agency that hires out English temporary workers in the Netherlands, a meat company that sells to customers in the UK or a pharmaceutical company that wants to start acquiring customers in England. All of these companies will be affected by Brexit. Do you know who will benefit and who won’t? I do*!
When: We know that as of March 29 Brexit is going to take place. The hope that there will be a 2nd referendum is unfounded, in my opinion, and if there will be one, it remains to be seen whether it will come in time and the result negotiated with the EU by 29/3. How do I know this? I lived in England for 13 years, founded, sold and closed several companies there, married an Englishman, have 2 half British children, am a partner in a British company and coach (via Skype) some of my time English clients. Since 4 years I live in the Netherlands again and have a coaching and consulting company here where I and my colleagues help with internationalization and Brexit trajectories, among other things.
In principle, both the EU and GB want a transitional arrangement valid between 29/3/19 and 31/12/20. Only it still needs to be ratified by all EU countries and GB itself. During this transition period people would still be able to travel and settle between countries and the free movement of goods would remain. Whether this will be ratified in time we do not know. If it is, we will have a hard Brexit and there will be a huge black hole in laws and regulations with the UK that we will all suffer from. For example, a lack of landing rights that will completely shut down air traffic to and from GB temporarily. But even if there would be a transitional arrangement, by the end of 2020 there will be no more free traffic. Will you have to stop targeting GB altogether in the future? Of course not, Brits are high income and hugely dependent on imports of both services and goods. It will just be a little less simple than now to start or continue doing business with them.
Many of the actions you have to take, for example, to get another status or exemption from the Dutch or British tax or customs authorities take anywhere from 90 to 150 days. So start now!
What: What should you start doing now? First, you can apply for a grant to take stock of what the impact of Brexit is going to be on your business with the help of a coach or consultant. And what steps you can do to mitigate or exploit the immediate impact. The government has set up a grant pot for that that we can apply for on behalf of your business. Plus there are all kinds of resources you can take advantage of.
Second, you can look at whether it makes sense to expand or expand into other countries if you are now largely dependent on customers or imports from the UK. And what steps you need to take to make that happen. Again, this is covered by subsidy for your coach.
* The answer is the pharma company.
Want to learn more about what Brexit will mean specifically for your business and industry and how we can help you with that? Or why the answer was pharma, please get in touch via our page https://brilliantwork.nl/contact/
Lizanne Jakobs
Founder Brilliant Work
