The Minister for Health, Care and Business, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, and the Attorney General, Michael Llamas CMG KC, yesterday co-chaired a meeting of the Business Transition Advisory Group.

The meeting brought together senior officials from HM Customs and across Government with representatives of the business community, to take stock of the position almost four months after the provisional application of the UK-EU Treaty on Gibraltar on 15th July 2026.

Members shared their experience of trading conditions and the movement of goods. The discussion covered customs procedures on both sides of the frontier, the cost and cash flow pressures facing businesses and the support measures available to them.

HM Customs updated the Group on a task force, supported by IT technicians, which will provide training and outreach for officers, customs clearing agents and traders. HM Customs will also prepare additional guidance to further assist suppliers to understand the procedure for delivering goods to Gibraltar through Spain.

Work is continuing on technological solutions to help businesses to reduce duplication of work, including the transfer of customs data between systems.

The Government will once again meet with customs clearing agents in the coming days, will consider the points raised by members and will continue to engage closely with the Group as the new arrangements develop.

The Minister for Health, Care and Business, the Hon Gemma Arias-Vasquez MP, said:

“Almost four months on from provisional application, it was important to hear, once again, directly from businesses on how the new arrangements are working in practice. I am grateful to the Attorney General for co-chairing the meeting and to members for their openness. Real progress has been made since July. Goods are moving, procedures are improving and HM Customs and traders are working closely together to resolve the issues that remain. HM Customs is strengthening its support for traders and we will continue to work with the business community on practical solutions, so that these arrangements work well for businesses across Gibraltar. Separately, we have heard the messages from traders on support schemes and we are collecting data from the first three months of collections of transaction tax to see how we can assist businesses.”