Client: Latin Elephant

Profile:

Latin Elephant is a charity that promotes alternative and innovative ways of engaging and incorporating migrant and ethnic groups in processes of urban change in London. They facilitate channels of communication between retailers, council, local organisations, developers and other stakeholders in urban developments and regeneration initiatives to raise awareness of the needs of the Latin American community

Problem:

Traders who had built up businesses over many years in the Elephant & Castle shopping centre were forced to relocate with very little financial or practical support from the local council to an area with much lower footfall and where their regular customers couldn’t find them. This problem was compounded at the beginning of 2020 by the start of the pandemic which meant many of them had to close and by the new customs regulations that came in to effect at the beginning of 2021. The majority of them imported their goods from the EU and the well documented supply chain disruption meant delays and significant price increases. The demographic of the group meant that many of them had not been aware of what the new customs regulations would have on their businesses so they had not been able to prepare.

Solution:

The Intertrade Services Groups conducted a 90 minute virtual workshop entitled “Imports, Exports and Supply Chains: What’s Changed Post-Brexit”. The content included;

• Context
• What’s Changed?
• What does this mean in Practice?
• The Process
• What is a Customs Declaration?
• Incoterms
• Commodity Codes
• Customs Codes
• Customs Procedure Codes
• Rules of Origin
• The Impact of Brexit on Supply Chains
• The impact pf Covid-19 on Supply Chains

The workshop was followed by a Q&A session to answer specific questions relating to individual problems the attendees are experiencing and to gather detailed information to research solutions and provide customised, written recommendations after the workshop.