UK PM Johnson to warn ‘time running out’ to prepare for end of Brexit transition – FT

The Financial Times (FT) came out with the news, on early Monday morning in Asia, confirming the market speculations that UK PM Boris Johnson is on the way to push British business for a no-deal Brexit. The report suggests the usage of an advertising campaign to publicize customs rules as an initial effort to ward off nearly 50% lack of preparedness for the hard Brexit.

The piece cites the latest failure of the UK and European Union (EU) policymakers to agree over the Brexit terms. Although Britain refrained from leaving the negotiation table despite the expiry of the October 15 deadline, PM Johnson has told EU diplomat Michael Barnier to come to London for Brexit only if he is prepared to ready to step back from the previously hardstand.

Also read: British officials prepared to water down Boris Johnson’s lawbreaking Brexit legislation

Key notes

(UK’s Cabinet Office Minister Michael) Gove and Mr. Johnson will make it clear that businesses need to prepare for January 1 regardless of whether a trade deal is agreed upon; government officials said that 80 percent of actions were required “deal or no deal”.

The decision to leave the customs union and single market will generate an estimated 215m customs declarations annually, costing business £7bn, and Mr. Gove has not contested industry estimates that 50,000 private sector customs agents will have to be hired to deal with the red tape.

FX implications

With the increasing odds of a no-deal Brexit, GBP/USD sellers attack 1.2900 following the news. Even so, the Sterling traders will wait for updates from the UK to determine near-term trend while also paying close attention to other key risk catalysts like the US stimulus and the coronavirus (COVID-19) wave 2.0 in Europe.