British exporters risk their goods sitting in quarantine and not being paid for unless a Brexit deal can be found by the end of next week.

Prime Minister Theresa May is spending Thursday in Brussels, seeking concessions to her Brexit deal that can win the support of both the EU and the U.K. parliament. Unless she resolves that conundrum, Britain is on course to tumble out of the bloc on March 29, losing the benefits of EU membership, including beneficial trade terms with countries on the other side of the globe.

“For many companies, it’s not 50 days away, hard Brexit happens nine days from now,” Stephen Phipson, chief executive of the EEF manufacturing lobby group, said. “Those are the first ships that are going to land post-March 29 in southeast Asia. If products get loaded on the ships, exporters have no idea when they land whether they’ll be on a 20 percent tariff regime. Will they need rules of origins certificates?”

Phipson’s remarks hammer home the real-world implications of the limbo that companies faces as lawmakers squabble over the shape of Brexit. Britain has […]