Brexit delays in the EU: How bad are delays for business with new rules and laws?

British pork trucks waiting to be shipped to Germany and stuffed in their arms perished in British ports this month while being stuck in line for customs clearance.

It’s a story that has just made headlines in the UK, as the country’s first month outside the EU has been overshadowed by coronavirus and the grim milestone of 100,000 deaths.

With freight traffic well below normal levels, due in part to storage, the overall effects of Brexit were also less visible than expected. The government avoided embarrassing several thousand trucks queuing in Kent and managed to get the victory for its planning.

Companies are telling another story, one about bureaucracy and delays that add up up to higher costs. Elsewhere, hidden under the impact blocking viruses, Brexit has penetrated all parts of the economy, affecting everyone from online shoppers to fishermen, car dealers, bankers and farmers.

Some of the problems can be short-lived, as companies deal with the situation. But as the UK tries to unravel a near false economic and trade relationship half a century, some friction will persist, creating an attraction economical growth.

“People refer to many of the problems as tooth problems,” he said Sam Lowe, senior senior at the Center for European Reform in London. “While businesses will learn how to fill out forms, we should recognize that the new bureaucracy is the new reality and there is still much to follow.”

UK

The virus and Brexit could leave factories without raw materials

Source: Confederation of British Industry

The range of headaches in the first weeks of Brexit was sometimes a farce, such as Dutch customs officers who confiscated a van ham sandwich due to new rules on imports of meat and dairy products. Popular candies Percy Pig broke the news while retailer Marks & Spencer Group Plc dealt with new rules on exports to Ireland.

But the changed landscape is also a matter of survival, especially for businesses that relied on the movement of goods, smoothly and at low cost, on and off the continent.

“When the EU started removing ham sandwiches from truck drivers because they say they don’t know if the meat meets EU standards, it was petty and ridiculous,” said Essex pig farmer Fergus Howie, who runs the pork business. export Wicks Manor. “For them to be so bureaucratic at the border is really disappointing, especially when trade with us is going on normally.”

January may not have given an exact commercial picture. Many companies stored to avoid any chaos at the border in the early days of 2021, but these inventories will not last long.

Government officials acknowledge that logjams could mount as cross-channel flows return to normal levels of around 75% today, although they are not expected to reach the worst case scenario last year. They also say that some difficulties are related to the need for drivers to have a negative Covid test, rather than Brexit.

But businesses say what was simple now is cumbersome. Documentation – especially for cargoes with different types of goods from several suppliers, known as groupage – is one of the problems causing delays.

Some carriers returned empty-handed to the mainland to skip the queues, which raised transport fares for six consecutive weeks, while others he avoided Britain altogether. France-UK transport volume sank as companies bypassed the UK taking direct routes to Europe, such as the one launched on Monday between Dublin and Amsterdam. And everything is likely to get worse when the UK introduces its own customs controls in June.

Cabinet Secretary Michael Gove said this week that the goods were flowing “efficiently”. If there are problems, the government “will make every stop to help them adapt.”

Far from ports, there was a shock for consumers. British buyers EU online shopping is affected by import duties. This may fuel inflation concerns: households’ prospects for rising prices are already high.

Price panic

The outlook for consumer inflation in the UK remains high

Source: Citigroup, YouGov

For Britain, the effort to leave the EU has been to get rid of what it said is bureaucracy and crushing rules, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson had a chance to show the benefits this week. Given that the EU’s vaccination campaign against Covid-19 lagged far behind Britain, Johnson showed “speed and agility” that would not have been possible en bloc.

“We have managed to do things differently and better in some respects,” he told lawmakers.

Britain almost left without any trade agreement, reaching an agreement only on Christmas Eve. Even then, some industries remain in the dark about their future.

The finances were not included in the discussions and are now based on a separate agreement, which could take years. Meanwhile, the city of London sees parts of its business – such as stock and derivatives trading – slipping.

The disappearance of vacancies

Job offers for funding in London have fallen every year since the Brexit vote

Source: Morgan McKinley

In the first month, the problems proved to be particularly acute for Northern Ireland, which was a major obstacle in the Brexit talks. Images of empty shelves in supermarkets appeared in early January and J Sainsbury Plc had to store rival products.

The border dispute with Northern Ireland it reappeared unexpectedly late on Friday, when the EU said it would launch a Brexit clause as part of new vaccine export controls before further downgrading.

Even fishing, which has become a symbol of Britain’s battle for “takeover” and a stalemate in negotiations, was an early victim, despite pro-Brexit MP Jacob Rees-Mogg’s insistence that fish in British waters are “happier”. ”

The trade agreement has regained rights to much less of Britain’s waters than expected. Some fishermen will end up with lower quotas for such popular fish at home chip-shop staples code and haddock. Exporters are particularly affected, as their shipments tend to group various products that require the most diverse new documents – customs, health and catch certificates.

Finally, the UK took a bet, lifting trade with its largest and closest trading partner the hope it will be able to force new and better trade agreements with other countries. For companies transporting goods between the EU and the UK, the consequences are beginning to subside.

“Proximity matters,” said the former UK trade negotiator David Henig. “Seamless trade is a thing of the past.”

– With the assistance of Dara Doyle and Alex Morales