The U.K. to scrap Post-Brexit Import Certification

Good news for wine connoisseurs

To import wine, traders must produce a VI-1 certificate, which adds approximately 10 pence to a typical 75 CL bottle of wine. Each batch of wine currently requires a laboratory analysis to ensure that it meets certain criteria before the certificate can be raised.

55% of all wine consumed in the UK is shipped from the European Union, which currently costs wine importers an estimated GBP.100 million per year. The relaxation will be effective from 2022.

Northern Ireland protocol

The United Kingdom’s long-running dispute with the European Union over the Northern Ireland protocol remains a point of contention, with no breakthrough in sight. In 2019 the UK and EU agreed on the protocol in order to prevent a hard border from being implemented between the Republic of Ireland and the north. However, the UK has now claimed that the protocol is, in fact, unsustainable and therefore requires change. On Thursday 22nd July, the UK submitted a proposal document requesting several changes to the original agreement, which seeks change in the following areas:

• The requirement for Certificates and checks for certain food products that will only ever be consumed in Northern Ireland to be withdrawn
• remove customs regularity checks on UK origin goods where the GB-registered businesses exporting them have declared the final destination is being Northern Ireland.
• remove medicines entirely from the scope of the protocol
• allowing labeled goods conforming to UK rules to permitted free movement in Northern Ireland alongside EU-registered products

The EU has re-stated that the protocol cannot be re-negotiated, with the UK threatening to activate Article 16 of the protocol that facilitates the parts of the deal to be overridden in the event that it is proven to create serious economic, societal, or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist.