As a Briton and proud European born in the early 70’s, I’ve enjoyed the multi-culturalism of being part of a very colourful European Union, both linguistically and culturally. There were no grey areas. Everything was clear, from travel, to laws and trade. Brexit was painful for many of us, as was the impact of the economic stability leading up to that time. I personally suffered an immediate impact on a B2B business I had launched. What we offered suddenly became a luxury, rather than a necessity. Indeed any company or individual attempting to procure even $5000 of business from a blue-chip organisation struggled. That impacted livelihoods, employment and also family relationships. Losses became emotional ones.

Yet here we are now. Brexit is done, and the impacts are appearing in evidence, yet to be weighed, with more hopeful negotiation to follow. The below extract focused on the immediate impact of imports and exports from my Top 5 World Predictions 2021 published in December, aims to offer some warning, but also solutions.

Brexit may have offered certainty with regards to trade tariffs, but it will, in the near term, cause an additional headache as a result of bureaucracy, for both importers and exporters to and from the EU, as well as outside. Import and export specialist software developers will need to upgrade their systems at stealth speed. Many had already completed some work in preparation for the final December 2020 result, but did not have 100% clarity. In the interim, we are informed by specialist software and solution providers with an objective of fully automated solutions, that the Brexit deal will put an addition burden of up to 10% more workload on importers and exporters with regards to declarations.  Hopefully, governments will provide the necessary support, as well as lenience with regards to any errors posed by the challenges. This may require further staff recruitment in customs and excise departments, as well as port and border officials, thus generating new jobs for those made unemployed by the pandemic.

About the Author

Strategic educational and business leader, Deborah Collier is founder of the Digital Skills Authority. During her earlier career she implemented e-commerce, developed and traded goods and services online, developed and advised on strategy for e-commerce business, and created and delivered management and leadership certifications in Internet retailing to well-known retailers and leading organisations around the globe.