Today I delivered a Key Note about Brexit to Norwegian business at the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise (NHO).
NHO is Norway’s largest organisation for business.
It is time for Norway business to wake up and start preparing. With 43 days to Brexit and UK being the second largest trading partner (20% of exports) after EU, the Norwegian business community need to start preparing for life witout a FTA, with potential WTO tariffs and with trading routes through EU across the English Channel to UK. Norwegian traders needs to start the planning and preparations.
As being a non-EU country maybe Norway has had the feeling not having to change so much in trade relations with UK, but this fundamentally wrong.
Start preparing. There can be costs from 3-25% extra in 43 days.
On the other hand, of preparations are done correctly – it could become a competition advantage towards mainland EU competitors, especially since Norway also have a seaborder and own seafreight connections with UK.
Norway Govenment Lead Brexit negotiator, Atle Leilvoll was the other key note speaker at this full house event in Oslo.
One thing is clear, the Norway business community is not ready for Brexit yet.
With the Norway fish industry at the forefront of exports this is serious.
In the small fishing town of Ísafjörður, Iceland, an exciting development in road safety has just popped up – almost literally.
A new pedestrian crossing has been painted that appears to be 3D by way of a cleverly-detailed optical illusion.
Not only does the innovative design give foot-travelers the feeling of walking on air, it also gets the attention of drivers, who will be sure to slow down their speed once they spot the seemingly floating ‘zebra stripes.’ Icelandic environmental commissioner Ralf Trylla called for its placement in Ísafjörður after seeing a similar project being carried out in New Delhi, India. With the help of street painting company Vegmálun GÍH, his vision became a reality.
Look at the amazing photos of the fascinating installment taken by Ágúst G. Atlason of Gústi Productions. Maybe you should ask for these crosswalks in your own city too.
What have the UK and Switzerland agreed on their trade relationship post-Brexit?
The text(s) of the agreement(s) signed on February 11, 2019 is(are) not available publicly but there are interesting insights in a Swiss government information sheet, prepared mainly for Swiss companies, and dealing only with trade in goods, not services.
A key point to make is that this is not exactly “rolling over” to the UK the present Swiss-EU trade relationship. It only looks at two situations: a transition under the Withdrawal Agreement, but not beyond; and the UK’s disorderly exit from the EU if there is no deal.
The Press releases of the February 11 reveals that UK now calls it a “trade continuity agreement”, whereas two months earlier it described it as a “transition” to an eventual deal.
The Economic Affairs Ministry’s main pages linking to the information sheets (the latest versions) and are available in French, German and Italian. The English page links to the German version.
The information sheet goes through a number of relevant agreements. In each case it looks at “deal” (the UK leaves with the Withdrawal Agreement and transition), and “no deal”. “Deal” only looks at the transition, not beyond.
Among the most extensive revisions in the February 11 version are in the section on rules of origin with “no deal”, and the removal of “double no deal” in government procurement.
Worth looklng into (for all of us nerds).
Source: Trade & Blog/P.Ungphakorn
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