Publicat pe 15/12/2020

Bucharest, December 15, 2020: The Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIR), together with the Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment, the Ministry of Public Finance, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration and the General Directorate of Customs organized, today, December 15, an online seminar, with the main theme of the new regulations on customs regime and the effects on import / export activities.

The general objective of this seminar was to provide comprehensive information on the new conditions and regulations for the main areas of economic cooperation with the United Kingdom, given its exit from the European Union.

“From the beginning, CCIR was the only non-governmental entity chosen to be part of the inter-ministerial committee for coordinating and preparing the business environment for Brexit. CCIR has created, since 2018, an online platform meant to answer all the questions of the business environment related to this process. The United Kingdom is one of the few G20 countries with which Romania has a trade surplus, which recorded 926.4 million euros at the end of 2019. We want this surplus to be maintained after Brexit. We are also talking about 6084 companies with British capital, registered on October 31^st, 2020, with a subscribed share capital of 1.04 billion euros. Last but not least, the United Kingdom has a value of direct investments in Romania of 2.85 billion euros. Thus, Brexit represents a very important point on the CCIR agenda for which we have made a substantial effort, in terms of disseminating any information related to this process to economic operators “, said the president of CCIR, Mr. Mihai Daraban.

“It is very important that Romanian companies exporting to the UK be prepared for the new regulations that will come into force on January 1^st, 2021. Thus, today’s event aims to present these regulations, regardless of whether or not a trade agreement. The United Kingdom and the European Union argue that the progress of the negotiation process is conditional on flexibility and a substantial adjustment in the position of the two sides. Whether or not an agreement is reached between the United Kingdom and the EU, customs controls will be applied to goods destined for the United Kingdom or coming from that country. The goods imported by the EU states from Great Britain and vice versa will have to respect the rules and standards imposed by the destination country “, said Mr. Dan Dragoș Drăgan, Secretary of State, Ministry of Economy, Energy and Business Environment

“It is for the first time in the history of the European Union when a state chooses to go through the accession process in reverse, namely to want to withdraw from the Union, a process that proves to be very complicated. Brexit affects more than 20,800 EU regulations, a significant part of which concerns the free movement of goods and commodities, as well as their taxation. The Government of Romania has proposed to carry out a series of information campaigns, so that all those involved in this process are informed of the changes that will follow, our ultimate goal being not to negatively affect the volume of exchanges. between the two states “, said Mr. Attila Gyorgy, Secretary of State in the Ministry of Public Finance

Background

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) left the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020 so that it is currently in the transition period which will end on 31 December 2020. Thus, by leaving the EU single market and the customs union, new regulations will be implemented from 1 January 2021 on the relationship with the United Kingdom.

The events will benefit from the presence of high-ranking officials from the Romanian central institutions and administration, whose area of competence regulates the Romanian-British bilateral trade relations, and will address specific technical issues regarding the new customs regime, tax rules.