In this week’s EU Exit Bulletin, read about new legislation to enable the continued supply of medicines into Northern Ireland from Great Britain and the EU trade dispute case against the UK over State Aid granted for offshore wind farms. In other developments, guidance is available for Revenue’s new Automated Export System and the latest edition of the Trader Support Service Bulletin has published.
EU Council adopts legislation to ensure continued supply of medicines to NI
This week, the EU Council adopted a directive and a regulation to ensure continued supply of medicines that are made in Great Britain to Northern Ireland on a permanent basis.
The aim of the directive is to preserve the uninterrupted supply of medicinal products for human use in Northern Ireland following EU exit, under the Northern Ireland Protocol.
This move creates an exception to the trade rules currently in place which require goods sent to Northern Ireland to be compliant with EU rules.
It will also, exceptionally and for a transitional period of three years, allow medicinal products from the UK to be placed on the market in Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus. This is a derogation from the requirement for authorisation holders to be established in the EU and is likely to help to facilitate the large amounts of UK medicines being imported into these markets.
The EU directive will apply retrospectively from 1 January 2022.
EU launches case against the UK at the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
The EU has filed a dispute case against the UK at the WTO over State Aid granted for offshore wind farms. The EU is arguing that the UK has been unfairly awarding wind farm contracts to British suppliers.
This is the beginning of the first dispute between the EU and UK since the end of the Brexit transition period in December 2020.
In a statement, the European Commission said: “The criteria used by the UK government in awarding subsidies for offshore wind energy projects favour UK over imported content... This violates the WTO’s core tenet that imports must be able to compete on an equal footing with domestic products and harms EU suppliers, including many SMEs, in the green energy sector.”
Revenue’s new Automated Export System – guidance now available
Revenue will deploy its new export system, the Automated Export System (AES) in January 2023. This replaces the existing AEP export system and export Manifest. The AES, deployed as part of the Union Customs Code, will impact export supply chain partners and according to Revenue “involves the use of a new dataset, the provision of new data by certain players, new software, interacting with a new Revenue IT system and the export procedure itself.”
In response to this change, the AES Export Trader Guide, AES Exit Summary and Re-Export Trader Guide and the updated AES Code Lists and the AES Business Rules and Condition Documents are now available on Revenue.ie.
Guide to C&E Reports available through Revenue's Online System (ROS)
Revenue has updated its Tax and Duty Manual to include details of a new weekly payment report available in Revenue Online Service (ROS) to Customs & Excise registered traders who are actively importing and/or exporting.
Latest Trader Support Service Bulletin
The 70th edition of the Trader Support Service (TSS) is now available. Included is the following:
- Updates to the TSS Portal and NICTA support website
- Details of new scheme for VAT relief on second-hand motor vehicles
- UK economic sanctions against Russia
- Apply to the UK Trader Scheme to declare goods not ‘at risk’ of moving to the EU
- Tips for using hauliers and helping them to provide the correct date on the Entry Summary Declaration (ENS)
- Currency options on the supplementary declaration