Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on SMEs in Kent of making customs declarations for the first time in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The Government remains confident of agreeing a mutually advantageous deal with the EU. However, we understand that if in the unlikely event that the UK leaves without a deal, customs declarations will become a new obligation for UK-EU trade which could affect many small and medium sized businesses.

HMRC continues to engage with businesses and their representative trade bodies and undertakes further specific engagement to understand how they will be affected by these new obligations. HMRC has written to 145,000 traders over the VAT threshold who currently only trade with the EU to help them plan for a no deal scenario. Alongside this, HMT and HMRC are supporting the intermediaries sector to expand ahead of March 19, so that they can provide services to SMEs.