Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1047665
4 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 4 NOVEMBER 2018 MASSIMO COSTA IT'S not just a hard Brexit for the Brits: Malta's online shop- pers could face the raw end of the deal when the United King- dom leaves the European Union on 29 March next year. For unless the UK reaches a trade agreement with the EU by the time it leaves, Britain will be a third country with different customs regulations that puts an end to the free movement of goods to Malta. And that means that Malta's own love affair with online shopping will become an expen- sive deal, as the large variety of products from British websites are until now delivered to Malta exempt of any customs fees. And it will be the same for car dealers who import second- hand vehicles form the UK, ben- efitting from the fact that Malta and Britain drive on the same side of the road. Malta's Customs Department is now advising businesses that engage in importing or export- ing goods from and to the UK to "hope for the best, but be pre- pared for the worst." Customs Department direc- tor-general Joe Chetcuti has warned that goods travelling to any EU member state from Brit- ain will have to be declared, even in the case of a 'soft' Brexit. All procedures currently in place for imports and exports to and from non-EU countries will also apply to the UK, in the case of a hard Brexit, Chetcuti said. "Every business will have to sub- mit a declaration to customs if it is importing goods from the UK or exporting them there. And all imports and exports will be sub- ject to all controls with customs deems fit to impose." Regardless of whether a hard or soft Brexit takes place, goods coming from the UK will have to start having their documen- tation examined. With a hard Brexit, tariffs will be imposed on any imports and exports from the UK. And if a customs arrangement is main- tained between the EU and the UK, the tariffs will not apply but the documentation checks will still have to be carried out. "There is a large degree of trade between Malta and the UK, and that means there is quite a considerable amount of addi- tional procedures the Customs department and businesses have to undergo. Every day there are 12 flights between Malta and the UK. Come Brexit, all passen- gers on board will have to be customs controlled," Chet- cuti said. "25 trailers a week containing 'grou- page' cargo arrive from the UK every week. Each of these containers car- ries goods for an average of 10 con- signees, who each have to start filling in a declaration. So we're talking 250 declarations per week for grou- page containers, and there are also around 30 single- consignee contain- ers a week." Malta also re- ceives 100 consign- ments from Britain every week deliv- ered on planes. Additionally, around 500 UK parcels are also delivered to Malta by international couriers each week. Added to this are the huge number of parcels de- livered through normal postal mail – 50% of all parcels coming by regular mail are from Britain. These include all goods such as clothes, electronics and books ordered by customers from UK websites for delivery to Malta. Clothes shops such as ASOS and NEXT, book shops such as Book Depository, music sellers like Juno.co.uk, and large online market places including Ama- zon UK and eBay UK are among the favourites for Maltese shop- pers searching for a better deal or more variety than they can get from local retailers. Chetcuti, however, surmised that big UK operators might decide to relocate their logistics hubs to places such as Germany in order to have all customs procedures undertaken in one country. "If, for instance, a UK online shop is relocated to a hub in Germany, a good bought from that shop for delivery to Malta would first be delivered to Ger- many. Once in Germany, all customs controls would be car- ried out, and it would come to Malta without the need for any NEWS Hard Brexit means tariffs for nation's favourite UK shops With no customs deal for the UK, Maltese online shoppers and used car importers will have to pay 'non-EU' duties on the goods brought into Malta People you can blame for the higher cost of buying goods from the UK if no customs deal is reached with the EU...