Please see below today’s updates from the government, which may be relevant for your businesses and supply chains.

Reservations Tool

BEIS has created a Reservations Tool to support businesses who export services to the EU. The tool enables businesses to identify the reservations in the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement that are relevant to them. Link to the tool: www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-eu-trade-and-cooperation-agreement-reservations.

What are Reservations?

The UK-EU TCA provides rules on international trade in services and investment, known as core commitments. These rules allow firms from each party to sell services to, and invest in, the other party, without discrimination. Reservations are areas where each party has reserved the right not to follow the core commitments.

Reservations are located in two annexes of the TCA. Annex I reservations set out the exceptions and limitations that are required by each party’s laws and regulations that were already in force when the agreement was signed (30 December 2020). Annex II reservations allow each party to introduce new discriminatory or trade restrictive laws or measures in future that do not conform to the core commitments, in relation to specified areas.

For example, Spanish law states that statutory auditors in Spain must be nationals of a Member State. The law is listed in Annex I and the reservation describes how the law does not conform to the core commitments.

What is the Reservations Tool?

The EU has taken over 500 reservations under the TCA and the precise rules on trade in services and investment varies between Member States and from sector to sector. BEIS has created a useful tool for searching through reservations: listed by country, by industry and by sector, reservations can be filtered to identify those that are relevant to the user.

Instructions for use are included on the ‘Cover_Page’ tab of the tool.

The Reservations Tool has been designed to be accessible for all types of businesses. However, due to the technical nature of reservation text, we expect it will be most useful for consultancy or legal firms. Businesses and professionals who use the Reservations Tool should still seek professional advice or liaise with the relevant EU member state(s) when providing services, investing or travelling for business in the EU.

If you have any questions, please contact the team at TINS.bear@beis.gov.uk.

Brexit Guidance

Brexit: guidance for businesses: First published.

Making a delayed supplementary import declaration using the Customs Declaration Service: First published.

Fast Parcel Operators and Agents

Search the register of customs agents and fast parcel operators: The list of customs agents and the list of fast parcel operators have been updated.