Intro to the Windsor Framework

Good morning everyone and welcome to this webinar from the Trader Support Service or TSS, giving an introduction to the Windsor Framework.

If you are new to TSS and wish to find out more about it, you can simply google Trader Support Service.

And why are we running today’s webinar?

Well, on 1st January 2021, the introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol changed the process of moving goods into and out of Northern Ireland.

On 27th February 2023, the UK and EU announced the new Windsor Framework, which will make changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol.

This webinar will introduce these changes.

On the next slide though, it is my delight to welcome today’s speakers I am Shanker Singham and Kevin Shakespeare, both of whom are authors and well known within the international trade arena.

Shanker Singham is the policy lead of the Trader Support Service Consortium, which has been delivering on behalf of HMRC the implementation of the protocol and now the Windsor Framework.

Shanker is one of the world’s leading international trade lawyers.

He is a recognised author and advisor to government and companies and an academic fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Shanker will be taking us through what the Windsor Framework is and what its immediate benefits are.

Kevin Shakespeare has been an advocate for international trade for more than 40 years and is highly respected within the international trade community.

He has facilitated cross-border trade for thousands of UK businesses and been pivotal in designing and delivering new documentation and processes pre and post Brexit.

Kevin was heavily involved in developing and delivering the Northern Ireland Customs and Trade Academy or NICTA, which is hosting today’s webinar.

Kevin will be guiding us through the upcoming changes and what you will need to do.

On the next slide though you’ll see today’s agenda, which includes the introduction I am doing at the moment, the main presentation about what the Windsor Framework is and a Q&A session at the end.

On the next slide you’ll see a bit more detail about what it is we want to achieve today.

We will begin by looking at what the Windsor Framework actually is and how it amends the existing Northern Ireland Protocol.

We will run through the major changes and how they affect you in the trading community.

We’ll explore the introduction of the new Green Line system that benefits this office for future trader journeys from the perspective of a buyer, seller, hoarder and carrier.

We’ll also look at the key dates for the upcoming changes so you can start to prepare and as mentioned there will be an opportunity for questions towards the end.

However before we get into the presentation we’d like to launch a quick poll to find out a little bit more about you, our audience.

So we are here asking how would you describe your understanding of the Windsor Framework.

The options being the benefits are unclear to me and I don’t know what to do next, I understand the benefits but still have questions on what to do next or I have a good understanding of the key benefits and actions to take.

While you are answering that poll some quick housekeeping notes from me.

Firstly please feel free to use the GoToWebinar dashboard to post any questions you may have.

We will have a question and answer session at the end where we will address as many of your pre-submitted questions as possible and we will prioritise questions that are of relevance to the wider audience as such we won’t be going into company or sector specific queries.

Secondly a recording of a session will be shared on our Niktor website after today’s session over the next day or so.

Now I will give you just a few more seconds to answer that poll and I will count you down three, two, one, close the poll now and sharing the results.

So 72% of you believe the benefits are unclear and you don’t yet know what to do next.

Just over a quarter of you, 26% of you understand the benefits but still have questions and only 2% of you understand both benefits and the actions to take.

Shanker that’s quite a revealing response there, is that surprising at all to you?

Yeah it is quite a striking response.

I think it’s not entirely surprising though because these are new arrangements, they are quite different from the situation in the past so it’s not surprising I think that people don’t really understand them yet so hopefully we’ll be able to shed some light on this in the next hour.

Thank you, thank you Shanker and thank you everyone for answering that poll so honestly as well.

But on the next slide thank you again for everyone’s answering that poll and it is my delight to hand over to Shanker to begin today’s presentation.

Over to you Shanker.

Thanks very much Will and if we can have the next slide please.

So yes, so what is the Windsor Framework and clearly from the poll many of you don’t fully understand the changes so I want to spend some time on this and first of all let me talk about the wider context.

We’ve been saying to you, our TSS traders for some time now that things are pending negotiations with the EU.

Well those negotiations are concluded and so that period of uncertainty does come to an end and we can now plan and the purpose here is to do a sort of stock take on what’s been agreed and to start to help you build those plans.

So at a very high level the purpose of the Windsor Framework is to restore the free flow of trade between GB and Northern Ireland.

It’s designed to give a very different and much easier feel for the trader who is moving goods internally within the UK customs trader versus the trader who is moving goods at risk of entering the EU, i.e Ireland.

There are other aspects of the Windsor Framework that are also benefits that we aren’t going to talk about here such as the storm and break.

This seminar is going to focus on the trade and especially the customs perspective.

So some specifics on key benefits in the green lane there.

The two lanes that we have on the slide are the customs green lane, that’s the thing on the left, and the retail movement scheme which is the DEFRA scheme which is on the right.

Again DEFRA has a lot of information about the retail movement scheme, they will be doing their own information share about that.

So again we’re not going to spend time on the retail movement scheme except at a very, very high level.

The key thing on the customs green lane is simplifications and facilitations.

So you’re used to a situation where if I can prove that my goods stay in the UK customs territory you get the tariff benefit.

Well now under the customs green lane you’re going to get simplification and facilitations as well.

The principal one is the scrapping of supplementary declaration requirements and obviously that has been a big challenge for traders and it was when it came in but that will go and since the supplementary declaration required over 80 data fields that’s a significant simplification.

So there will be simplified data requirements.

The principal one or the principal sort of high level point here is that because you’re not moving outside of the UK customs territory you are not going to be making an international customs declaration but you will have some data that you will need and typically this is shipping and supply chain invoice type data.

The sorts of things that you would be required if you were shipping products anywhere else around the UK and this information falls into four sort of broad categories.

One, standard commercial data which is sort of commonly found in sales invoices and that type of thing.

Then the sort of standard commercial data that’s found in transportation documentation.

The third category is that it is information that is generated or auto-populated by the trader support service or if you’re not using the trader support service and I’m conscious there may be some people on this seminar who aren’t on the on the TSS you can use you know your intermediary can generate that data for you and the core of that is the trader’s goods profile.

Now that is new there is information on it in gov.uk and we have a pointer there to gov.uk which is particularly a reference to the information drop that went in on Friday.

So if you go to gov.uk you’ll see what was shared on Friday and there’s quite a lot of detail on the goods profile so I’d recommend you look at that.

Essentially it enables you not to have to provide a commodity code for each movement of goods.

So this goods profile will essentially enable traders to move goods and to link goods descriptions with codes and for UK TS traders HMRC will automatically, intends to automatically populate the profile based on data held about the traders previous movements and if you’re new to the UK internal market scheme which I’m going to just mention in a second, there will be a simple process to get on it.

The one thing I would say about the retail movement scheme is there is an interaction here so that if you’re moving goods that are on the retail movement scheme then even SPS goods that information in the profile will only be required to be held at six digit levels so that’s a significant benefit and of course we will help you with all of this.

So I’m very conscious this is new, I’m very conscious that people will have a lot of questions about it but we will help you with all of those.

So the prerequisite for being on the customs green lane is the UK internal market scheme.

We will fully explain the benefits and how to get on the UK internal market scheme in a seminar on June the 21st but for right now it’s an enhanced and expanded trusted trader scheme which replaces the UK, will replace the UK trader scheme.

It is open for registration now, it’s opened on Friday, last Friday and the registration process looks similar to what you’ll be familiar with in terms of the UKTS registration process but there are some new eligibility criteria because obviously there are greater scope and benefits on the UKIMS than on the UKTS.

So you will need to provide HMRC with some further information on this.

Now if you’re an existing UKTS trader you will be directly contacted by HMRC and that process basically began as the scheme went live.

So you will be hearing from HMRC if you are a UKTS trader.

I want to underscore this because it’s very, very important that when HMRC reaches out to you that you respond, that this registration authorisation process can’t happen without your input so you need to respond to that.

And again if you go to the information drop on gov.uk that came down on Friday you will see that the UKIMS registration process is now open and we will on NICTA obviously be providing as we always do the relevant links that you’ll be able to easily see.

So on the right hand side of the slide the retail movement scheme, again I’m not going to discuss this in detail today, this is DEFRA’s scheme, DEFRA will be leading on this and they will be the place to go for immediate inquiries but also I would again recommend you look at gov.uk and the DEFRA information there.

What I would say very quickly is there is an expanded eligibility from the STAMNI scheme.

Goods will move on the basis of a general certificate for all eligible consignments, obviously there will be reduced checks on lorries and there will be different rules that apply for traders on the retail movement scheme that allow certain products to be placed on the market in Northern Ireland that would not otherwise be able to be placed on the Northern Ireland market.

So that is a significant benefit and as I mentioned before in the context of the trader goods profile there are some beneficial interaction effects between the Customers Green Lane and the retail movement scheme.

So if we go to the next slide please.

So the Customers Green Lane goes live on the 30th of September 2024 and we will be helping traders get ready for that process, do what they have to do in terms of their UK internal market scheme, registration and subsequent authorisation and we will be preparing you for that.

But there are some immediate benefits that I do want to share because they are literally around the corner.

So the first one is something you’ve been asking us for a very long time.

So the duty reimbursement scheme will be in place, it will go live on June the 30th.

Again, further information at gov.uk and again we’ll be posting links there.

There was a very specific set of information given on Friday about the duty reimbursement scheme and the important thing to note about it is it applies to all movements from the 1st of January 2021 that have been declared at risk.

So if you’ve been moving goods on an at-risk basis and you’ve been incurring a duty, in other words you’re not paying zero duty because the common external tariff, the European tariff is zero and your goods are not covered by the zero tariff, zero quota provisions of the trade and cooperation agreement, the UK -EU free trade agreement, then you will have been providing, you will have been paying a duty and if you can show in certain categories that your goods have not, they’ve either been consumed in Northern Ireland or they’ve been sold back into GB or they’ve been sold entirely outside of the UK and the EU.

If you fall into those categories and you have the relevant evidence for that, then you will be able to benefit from the duty reimbursement scheme.

So the other benefit and as I say that’s going live on the 30th of June which is just a couple of weeks away, so we will obviously be helping traders who are interested in taking advantage of that scheme with the kinds of documentary evidence and so forth that they need to provide in order to take advantage of it.

So the second thing that goes live in fairly short order is the new tariff rate quota scheme.

Now this is sort of quite specific to the particular traders in these areas and if you are in this area you will have been reached out to by HMRC.

So if what I’m about to tell you, if you’re trading steel in categories 7 and 17 and steel traders will know what those categories refer to, but if you are trading steel in those categories and you haven’t been reached out to by HMRC or by us, please let us know.

The reason for this is that there is a new Northern Ireland tariff rate quota for steel in those categories.

The reason this is important is because in the past movements of those products were restricted somewhat because once the EU quota was drawn down, these products had to pay a much higher duty under the TRQ.

So the creation of a specific Northern Ireland quota solved that problem.

So essentially just to recap for those who are unfamiliar with it, a tariff rate quota is essentially a quota in the EU or for that matter in the UK, but either is a very low tariff or a zero tariff and then when you’re above the quota you go to a much higher tariff.

So in steel categories 7 and 17 you now have a new Northern Ireland TRQ, so that’s a significant benefit.

So we go to the next slide please.

I’m going to take you very quickly through this which is a way of visually representing the difference between the green lane, the customs green lane and the existing journey.

Now I won’t spend much time on the existing journey because you’ll be familiar with it, this is what you do now.

The haulier completes the entry summary declaration, from that you know the TSS generates the SFD, haulier obtains the GMR, the goods are moved and then we come to you afterwards requesting further information, these 80 data fields of the supplementary declaration and you pay duty if necessary on TSS or if you’re UKTS you make that claim and you don’t pay any duty.

So that is the current situation, the red lane movement.

That’s not going to change as a result of the Windsor Framework, what is going to change is if you are eligible for the UK internal market scheme and therefore the customs green lane which as I said goes live 30th September 2024, then this is what the process looks like, it’s much simpler as you can see.

You’ve got the existing commercial information, the existing transport information, the information from the goods, the trader’s goods profile.

If you’re moving certain kinds of SPS goods there’s some additional information that is needed, for example live animals and so on, but that’s the information that goes in and it’s from that information that the haulier obtains the GMR and the goods are moved and after that neither the trader, the buyer, the supplier or the seller of those goods or the haulier for that matter, none of the parties are going to be troubled for anything else.

Once the goods move, the goods move.

It does mean that the buyer, seller and haulier have to do more before the movement to communicate with each other to figure out who is actually going to provide this information into the TSS.

But to bring this a bit more to life and to make this a bit more interesting on a Monday morning, Kevin and I are going to do a bit of role playing.

So initially Kevin is going to play the role of the buyer and I will be acting as the TSS service agent.

So we will start off the role play now.

Hi, this is the Trader support service.

How can I help?

Good morning, I currently use TSS to move my goods.

What will be the differences within your green lane and what do I need to do and when do I need to do it?

Well, can I ask you what role you play in the supply chain?

What do you actually do?

Okay, I buy goods from a supplier in Great Britain.

I order my goods from the supplier and then the supplier just arranges delivery to me in Northern Ireland.

TSS currently asks me to complete the supplementary declaration which I have to hold as a draft on my account and it has lots of complex information and data.

Will that change?

Yes, it will.

So when you order the goods from your supplier, the first thing you need to do is agree with the supplier who’s going to submit the commercial information into the trader support service.

The commercial information is what you really need.

Most of this will come from your existing invoice and shipping documents.

So broadly speaking, the information you need to provide falls into four categories.

First of all, standard commercial data which you will have in your sales invoice.

Then standard commercial data that you will have in your transportation documents.

Thirdly, there is some additional information that’s going to be generated or auto-populated by the trader support service.

So this includes your trader’s goods, your goods profile.

Your goods profile is the information about your goods from which the goods description, from which we take the goods description and we generate the additional information that I mentioned to you.

If you’re a UK TS trader, then HMRC intends to automatically populate that profile based on the data held that they already have about your existing movements.

And if you’re not a UKTS trader, then there’ll be a simple process to populate that.

So the haulier will then, your haulier will then get the GMR based on the information that has been provided and they’ll bring the goods into Northern Ireland.

Now the significant difference here is that we won’t contact you again.

There won’t be any requests for extra information.

There won’t be any requests for a supplementary declaration.

But there are some things that you need to get up front from your supplier and you, the supplier and the haulier, need to have a conversation at the outset so the haulier has all the information they need to put that information onto the TSS.

And this will be in place from 30th September 2024 as the Green Lane is introduced by the Windsor Framework.

In the meantime, so until the 30th September 2024, you will continue to do supplementary declarations and they are required and the normal customs process that you do now is required for all movements.

Thank you.

I like the sound of that and really don’t like having to complete all this data entry for supplementary declarations.

What do I need to do to use the Green Lane then?

So just like you had to register for the UKTS, to use the Green Lane you’ve got to register for a new scheme called the UK Internal Market Scheme or UKIMS.

And it’s a similar scheme which grants you access to the Green Lane.

So when do I need to apply?

Well, if you’re already UKTS registered, HMRC should be reaching out to you to get you onto the new UKIMS scheme.

If you’re not UKTS registered, you can now register for UKIMS itself.

It went live last Friday, Friday, June the 9th.

And you should, if you think you’re eligible, you should certainly take advantage of it.

Thanks.

On a separate note, I heard about a tariff benefit.

What’s that?

Yeah, so if you’ve previously moved goods and you’ve already paid the EU tariff, but the goods never actually entered the EU, and you’ve got the evidence to show that, and it will be documentary evidence, you don’t have to have all kinds of sophisticated ways of proving this, it’s documentary evidence, then you can apply for the duty reimbursement scheme.

And you will be able to make retrospective claims on goods traded after the 1st of January 2021, but never entered the EU.

Well, thanks for your help and information.

The green lane certainly sounds right for me.

Great, we’re now going to go on to the seller perspective.

So if we could put the next slide on.

And just to keep things a bit more lively, we’re going to swap roles and I will be the seller and Kevin will be the TSS agent.

Hello, this is TSS.

How can I help you?

Hi, I sell goods into Northern Ireland.

They’re supplied from Great Britain.

I make all the arrangements to deliver to my buyer.

So right now I’m doing the supplementary declaration.

Now, I still want to make all these arrangements.

That’s the commercial arrangement I have with my buyer.

But I want to use the green lane.

So what do I need to do differently to use the green lane?

Well, first of all, you need to be registered on UKIMS. That’s very, very important.

And just to clarify, UKIMS is the new trusted trader scheme replacing UKTS, so replacing the UK trader scheme.

But I couldn’t be on the UK trader scheme because I don’t have physical premises in Northern Ireland.

Oh, right.

Okay.

Well, some good news, the Windsor Framework has changed this and now all businesses throughout the UK, United Kingdom, will now be eligible to apply for UKIMS. So this move is away from previous restrictions that required a business to have physical premises in Northern Ireland.

Great.

That’s a good benefit for me.

But what happens after I have my UKIMS authorisation?

Right.

As a seller with a customer in Northern Ireland, you’ll need to have a conversation with your customer, the buyer, and confirm that the goods will stay in Northern Ireland to enable use of the green lane.

So for example, can you confirm that your goods will end up in a retail store in Northern Ireland?

Yeah, I can confirm that.

But what do I need to do next?

Right.

So you will need to tell your haulier that the movement will be on the green lane and provide them with the existing commercial information needed to obtain the GMR, the goods movement reference, and then approval for the goods movement.

You will then send your goods to Northern Ireland and alert your buyer that the goods have moved into Northern Ireland.

And do I then have to do the supplementary declaration?

No, neither you nor your buyer will be troubled again.

So just to confirm, no request for a supplementary declaration or supplementary data sets.

And that’s it?

Nothing else?

Yes, that’s it.

It’s good news.

Agreed.

Thanks for your help.

All right.

So I hope that’s shed a little bit of light on this process for you.

Again, we will be here to help you through all of this.

If we go to the next slide, I’m going to hand over to Kevin to talk about when you can expect these changes.

Thank you very much, Shanker.

So let’s talk about the sort of timeline for these changes.

And again, reiterate that the green lane provides clear advantages over the current process when the goods are staying in the United Kingdom.

But let’s look at when all this will happen.

When can we expect major change?

So there will be a phased approach to implementing the Windsor framework, as agreed with the European Union right through to 2025.

So in terms of the key days, I think as we’ve indicated, some of the benefits are already available.

So in March, the new tariff rate quota for steel, which Shanker has referred to.

In June, and following the announcements last Friday, the 12th of June, registration is now open for UKIMS. So again, just to confirm, UKIMS is the new scheme which replaces UKTS.

And it’s essentially essential to use UKIMS to access the green lane.

So we would encourage everyone to sign up as soon as possible, and very much ideally before the 31st of July.

So this allows HMRC to complete enrolment for UKIMS by the 30th of September.

So again, just in terms of some of those key dates that you can see on screen, it’s very important that we all act quickly.

And as indicated, the trader support service is there to assist you.

So you can apply for the duty reimbursement scheme on goods moved from the 1st of January 2021 that did not enter the EU.

So moving forward to September this year 2023, for goods movements taking place on or after the 30th of September, you must and you will need to use UKIMS to benefit from not paying EU duty or tariffs.

So again, to reiterate, it’s very important to register before that date and as early as possible.

So to clarify, for UKTS, UK trader service authorisation can apply up to and including 29th of September.

So once you are authorised for UKIMS, we would strongly suggest that you use UKIMS immediately for goods that you move on or after the date you are authorised.

So once you’re authorised for UKIMS, strongly suggest that you use UKIMS authorisation immediately after the date you’re authorised.

So if you are completing a supplementary declaration, you should use the authorisation you held at the time your goods were moved.

So if you use the UKTS authorisation, you should continue to use that.

Obviously noting that UKTS authorisation only applies up to 29th of September.

If you use the UKIMS authorisation, you should obviously apply the supplementary declaration to that until we get to September 2024.

So in October 2023, the Northern Ireland retail movement scheme will go live.

And then moving forward to September 2024, as we’ve outlined, the Green Lane customs process simplifications will be implemented.

But UKIMS authorised traders can benefit from paying no duty if their movements stay in the UK.

So we appreciate there’s quite a lot to take in here, which is why we did the role play and clearly we expect a few questions and answers as well that we would be happy to provide by way of clarification.

So for more details and any changes for other regulatory frameworks, such as post and parcels, which you can see on the slide, please contact the Windsor framework sectorial guides on gov .uk. An updated guidance will be provided in due course.

So if we have the next slide, please.

So let’s look what these changes mean for you.

And again, just to give some context here, you should continue to follow the current process using TSS to move goods into Northern Ireland and completing all supplementary declarations.

So it’s important to stress that you are required to submit supplementary declarations for movements using the simplified journey until the Windsor framework is fully implemented, as we looked at in the last slide in the autumn 2024.

But again, to re-emphasise as an immediate next step, you must be registered for UKIMS to access to Green Lane.

So let’s just look at it a bit further and the points on the right hand side of this slide.

If you’re an existing UKTS authorised trader, HMRC will contact you as we’ve referred to, and you will be able to log into gov.uk using your government gateway account to enrol in the new, and as we’ve indicated, expanded UKIMS. The expanded scope and benefits of UKIMS means there will be new eligibility criteria.

So again, just to note that.

So due to the extended benefits of the scheme, for HMRC to confirm your eligibility, you will need to provide HMRC with some additional information.

But what happens if you’re not registered on UKTS?

You should apply for UKIMS as soon as possible.

And again, it’s the key message we want to get out from today.

UKIMS, as we’ve said, is more flexible than UKTS.

So if you were previously not eligible for UKTS, you might be eligible for UKIMS. And in the role play, we gave an example of that, for example, for the GB registered trader.

So UKIMS will close on the 30th of September 2023.

So UKTS, just to clarify, will close on the 30th of September 2023.

And UKIMS must be used on the 30th of September to make duty-free movements into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

So let’s just go over that again, because it’s a really important point.

UKTS will close on the 30th of September.

And UKIMS must be used from the 30th of September onwards to make duty-free movements into Northern Ireland from Great Britain.

So registering for UKIMS, and sorry to repeat myself, must be done as early as possible.

And please do not leave it to the last minute.

So once registered for UKIMS and the Green Lane is active, you will be able to send goods via TSS using existing commercial data.

And I think, you know, Shanker has given some examples of commercial data required for Green Lane movements, but very much readily available from invoices, delivery notes.

Examples of such information, goods description, value, weight, vehicle registration, delivering the goods.

So if we move to the next slide and I’ll hand back to Will.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Kevin, and indeed Shanker as well for that very comprehensive introduction to the Windsor Framework.