With ASKAR SHEIBANI

Chair, DBF & CEO Comtek Network System UK Ltd

The UK Government has spent the last few years negotiating with the European Union to seal a deal that will benefit our country and economy.

This Government has always maintained that leaving the European Union would bring autonomy to the UK’s businesses; opening up the global market for us to trade and export without the EU’s restrictive rules. They promised us freedom from the red tape and bureaucratic burdens which the EU was placing us under.

Will the government actually be delivering on its promises?

UK businesses are fed up with layers of totally useless unnecessary bureaucratic rules that burden businesses, in particular, the small and mid-size enterprises which do not have the resources to deal with such bureaucracy.

The EU-UK trade talks are now entering their final stages. Both sides are trying to compromise, so that an agreement can be reached.

There are serious emotional issues such as access to British waters and fishing rights. The EU wants enforceable governance in place so that if the UK breaks any of the agreed rules, it can be punished and sanctioned. The EU would like the UK to adopt the EU’s State Aid rules. (Under such rules a company which receives government support gains an advantage over its competitors within other EU states. Therefore, the treaty generally prohibits State aid unless it is justified by reasons of general economic development).

I believe that for the UK to reach an amicable trade deal, it should compromise on fisheries and access to British Waters. This will have a negligible negative impact on the UK’s economy. However, under no circumstances should the UK compromise and continue to adopt the EU’s State Aid rules, nor should it accept any governance for enforcement of the deal except the World Trade Organisation’s well-established fair “dispute-settlement system”.

The whole idea of not being part of the EU’s State Aid rules is that the UK government, if necessary, would be able to support UK entrepreneurs, innovation and key sectors such as renewable energy, pharmaceutical and aerospace. Removal of the State Aid rules from the deal would benefit North Wales, in particular, enormously.

If the UK Government caves in to the EU’s Governance and State Aid rules demands, there will be no point in or any advantages of leaving the EU.

The UK imports significantly more than it exports. This is not because we are less creative or lack business expertise. It is because the bureaucratic and complex rules governing export licencing is like a concrete wall built around exporters, especially the technology products exporters.

For example, when we order a technology product from China, it would normally take about three days to be delivered. On the other hand, when we export a technology item to China it could take over three months to obtain an export licence. This is partly due to civil servants’ strict adherence and interpretation of the EU’s export licencing rules, together with their lack of expertise.

To be fair, I don’t blame our trade ministers for the construction of these types of nonsensical barriers. Ministers are politicians and very few have ever developed their own businesses. They have never been confronted with the types of bureaucratic barriers we are facing every day.

With all due respect, they have no clue about what is going on within their respective trade departments. They have to trust and rely on their civil-servants and hope that all goes well.

These are all very simple problems for the government to resolve:

1. Trust and listen to businesses.

2. Overhaul our ridiculous bureaucratic trade barriers.

3. Bring about serviceable rules, so we can export seamlessly without any pointless obstacles.

4. Do not sign up to EU’s State Aid rules nor Governance.