Brexit Crisis or Opportunity?

The last in a series of successful Brexit Seminars focusing on food, and attracting international attention, will take place at The Crowne Plaza, NEC, Birmingham on Wednesday 17^th October 2018.

Attended by food businesses and non-food importers, Embassies, logistics providers and consultants from the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, France and Asia, the event is hosted jointly by Oakland International and Oakland Invicta, with October’s final Brexit event focusing on transit and how existing border arrangements today could be extended for EU-UK-EU trade.

Oakland’s Robert Hardy, a career-long Customs specialist and an advisor to the Institute for Government, InterTradeIreland, InvestNI and a registered expert with the EU Commission on matters relating to international trade, commented:

“There is a great deal of scaremongering going on that appears to be politically motivated rather than based on pragmatism, knowledge or ground-level experience, ranging from huge delays to huge tariffs, or both! The UK exports more to non-EU than within the EU, furthermore the non-EU element is growing, consistently, year on year.

“Today, 140K traders create 50 million Customs declarations per annum. Post Brexit this is expected to grow by 200 million declarations and expose 140K additional importers/exporters to customs formalities for the first time. Tools including AEO, CFSP and Customs Warehousing are available today. AEO is 10 years old and CFSP and warehousing have been around for longer than that. It is very possible to embed Customs processes within your day-to-day business, but you need to accept change and adapt. If you do nothing, nothing will happen!”

Previous seminar panel speakers have included Dean Attwell CEO and Co-founder of Oakland International, Liam Gilbert from IGD, Chris Sturman CEO of FSDF, John Keefe Director of Public Affairs for Getlink (formerly Eurotunnel), Karl Trumper Managing Director – UK Trade & Working Capital at Barclays and Robert Hardy Operations Director of Oakland Invicta, who covered subjects ranging from exports and imports, the customs union, the Irish Border and port delays; each theme unpicked and demystified, with questions answered by the panel who provided delegates with practical advice and guidance.

Delegates have included Netherlands based food producer Conveni’s Head of Commercial UK and Ireland, Noel Reidy, who stated: “Time really well spent, – Rob Hardy clearly explained how to navigate Brexit with practical, sound advice, without all of the political spin and jargon.”

Katrina McWhinnie from The McWhinnie Consultancy commented: “Very positive information delivered in a clear and light-hearted manner. I will definitely be attending the next one.”

For more information and how to book, please visit: www.mybrexit.uk or call 01527 594570 for further details.