Aviation Safety and the UK Border so far

We covered the aviation safety agreement in the last Brexit bulletin, but following this week’s webinar with Tim Johnson, Policy Director at the CAA, we’ll keep the focus on aviation safety in this bulletin. Our overview of the UK-EU agreement on aviation safety can be found in the ADS members area.

This week’s webinar with Tim Johnson gave members the opportunity to ask questions and highlight any issues resulting from the new agreement directly with colleagues from the CAA. Common themes included:

• the recognition of CAA Form 1’s outside of the EU
• UK bilateral relations with other National Aviation Authorities (NAAs)
• the progress on the negotiations of the UK-EU Technical Implementing Procedures (TIP).

The key takeaway is that the CAA’s priority at the moment is the TIP negotiations (more on that below) and that UK companies experiencing issues with acceptance of CAA Form 1’s outside of the EU should first ascertain whether it is the local operator, or the NAA, that is refusing to accept the products accompanied by a CAA Form 1.

As set out above, the priority for the CAA, as well as industry, is now to agree the TIP to support the design authorisation aspects of the agreement. The CAA and EASA have met (virtually) several times since the start of the year and a draft TIP has been tabled. The CAA is positive about the progress made to date but do anticipate the process to take a few months given the outstanding issues and bureaucratic process that needs to take place on both sides.

Looking beyond the UK-EU agreement, the CAA and DfT are keen to understand the UK aerospace industry’s priorities for future policy and regulatory development. This includes identifying key non-EU markets with which to open discussions on bilateral agreements on aviation safety, if and how the UK should align with, and potentially diverge from, the EU in the years ahead, and how the UK CAA can work with the industry to facilitate innovation.

ADS will consult members on these issues in due course, but in the meantime please do not hesitate to get in touch with any initial thoughts you might have.

The UK Border so far

The UK has now been operating its full external border for one whole month. So far, the border teams in government are reporting everything is running smoothly. However, we also know that trade is operating below annual trend, and slightly below expectations of where it would be even with reduced activity during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Officials are reporting that the number of Kent access permits issued are still exceeding the number of outbound trucks which is a sign of positive compliance with  the new requirements. The number of trucks being turned back from the border is on a downward trend, with trader readiness and coronavirus testing both a factor in the 5% of those who are turned away.

Elsewhere all UK Government systems and EU systems are reporting to be functioning as intended, although those who make RoRo movements through Ireland are encouraged to move to the new customs system, as the old system cannot generate PBNs (pre-boarder Notifications). All traders should be using AIS (Automated Import System), as the old system will be closing in March, so the recommendation is to move over to the new system now

Requirements to have a negative Covid-19 text

HMRC is keen to recommunicate that goods need to have a Transit Guarantee linked to their EORI registered on NCTS in order to be able to start a movement under Transit.

The guarantee must be sufficient to cover the maximum amount of duties suspended under transit at any single point in time. None of this is a new requirement but the NCTS system has been recently updated to support trader’s usage of their guarantee.

Transit Guarantees

If members are exporting goods to the EU on an Open or Standard Individual Export Licence that was issued before October 2020, they should approach their DIT licencing officer to have the licence re-issued.  In the meantime, you will not be able to make a declaration to the EU using an OIEL/SIEL issued before October 2020, until the licence is reissued.

Export Licences provided before October 2020 with an EU destination are not linked to CHIEF yet. OGELs are not impacted by this and do not need re-issuing.

OIEL and SIEL issued before October 2020

If members are exporting goods to the EU on an Open or Standard Individual Export Licence that was issued before October 2020, they should approach their DIT licencing officer to have the licence re-issued. In the meantime, you will not be able to make a declaration to the EU using an OIEL/SIEL issued before October 2020, until the licence is reissued.

Export Licences provided before October 2020 with an EU destination are not linked to CHIEF yet. OGELs are not impacted by this and do not need re-issuing.

Rules of Origin

Under the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU, in order to export tariff-free into the EU, traders must check their goods meet Rules of Origin requirements. Many ADS members will be looking at this for the first time, and we appreciate the complex nature of calculating and proving economic nationality of goods.

There are four types of rule that a product may need to meet:

• Wholly Obtained (WO)
• Change in Tariff Code (CTC)
• Value Added
• Specific Processing Rule (SPR)

Members need to make sure that they understand their supply chains to know where materials or inputs come from. Businesses can sometimes count EU origin materials and processing when considering if UK goods meet EU meet rules of origin requirements, this is called 'cumulation'.

Government have provided a slide deck which sets out the requirements on goods exported as well as imports that members should familiarise themselves with as a starting point with full Rules of Origin guidance on trading with the EU on gov.uk.