Update on trading through Northern Ireland

Plans for the future of trade in Northern Ireland (NI) continue to emerge. Here’s the latest Import Export Support update, along with links to pages of particular interest to any business that trades through NI.

Trader support service

The Institute for Export have introduced a Trader Support Service (TSS) to support businesses through the changes to Northern Ireland trade which take effect on 1 January 2021.

The free-to-use service will provide guidance and training, a digital service to support declarations, and support from customs experts, delivered by the brand new Northern Ireland Customs & Trade Academy (NICTA) and funded by the Government.

The service is open to traders, intermediaries and carriers moving goods into and out of Northern Ireland. To access the programme, you need to register your business.
Register your business
To apply you’ll need the usual business information to hand, including:

• VAT Number
• EORI Number

Once registered you can access free training either as a downloadable guide or a webinar. Currently there’s one webinar available ’Introduction to Customs’. The first session was fully booked but there are more scheduled.
Training info here

More support in the form of guides and webinars is promised, so it could be worth bookmarking the page.
How-to guides here

There’s also a useful jargon buster to help you get a grip on all those awful terms and acronyms.
Jargon buster here