The increased red tapism and border disruption because of Brexit is causing problems for almost half of British exporters to the European Union, showed a survey that is one of the most comprehensive one since the leaving of the United Kingdom from the EU.
According to the survey carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) on a total of 470 British companies, 49 per cent of the companies surveyed affirmed facing issues with the post-Brexit arrangements since the beginning of the current year with the companies finding it very difficult to adapt to and tackle higher costs because of the additional border checks and significantly more paper work at the borders.
The severe problems with cross border trade should be addressed through urgent measures by both the British government and the European Union immediately, warned the leading business lobby group after just about a month of the setting in of Brexit and new rules and regulation of cross border trading.
UK companies trading with the EU were often left confused about which of the new rules applied to them in addition to dealing with additional costs of trade, delays in shipments to and from the EU and very large quantity of paper work, the business lobby group said.
There is increasing pressure on the UK government to take action to ease out the problems at the border as companies and groups have warned about other problems cropping up within the new system later in the year when the volume of trade increases with the ebbing away of the pandemic.
The Brexit and Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a lower than usual trade in January between the UK and the EU and after UK companies rushed to stockpile goods in December so that they do not face issues at the end of the Brexit transition period which ended on December 31.
Acknowledgement of the “teething problems” in trade was made by UK prime minster Boris Johnson just about a month into the new rules. Business groups have however warned of permanent higher costs of business for UK companies even after the ironing out of the initial complications.
Difficulties were faced by one third of the companies surveyed in terms of adapting to the changes in the rules and regulations to movement and trading of goods from the UK to the EU and vice versa, the BCC in the findings of the survey which was conducted in late January. Only about 10 per cent of the companies in the survey said they found it easy to accommodate to the new rules while 45 per cent of the respondents of the survey said that cross-border trade was not applicable to their business. About 16 per cent of the businesses said it was too early for them to judge the impact of cross border trade in a post Brexit system
However half of the companies who were directly involved in cross border trading with the EU said they faced difficulties in exporting goods while 51 per cent of the manufacturers also reported the same for importing of goods from the EU.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
According to the survey carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) on a total of 470 British companies, 49 per cent of the companies surveyed affirmed facing issues with the post-Brexit arrangements since the beginning of the current year with the companies finding it very difficult to adapt to and tackle higher costs because of the additional border checks and significantly more paper work at the borders.
The severe problems with cross border trade should be addressed through urgent measures by both the British government and the European Union immediately, warned the leading business lobby group after just about a month of the setting in of Brexit and new rules and regulation of cross border trading.
UK companies trading with the EU were often left confused about which of the new rules applied to them in addition to dealing with additional costs of trade, delays in shipments to and from the EU and very large quantity of paper work, the business lobby group said.
There is increasing pressure on the UK government to take action to ease out the problems at the border as companies and groups have warned about other problems cropping up within the new system later in the year when the volume of trade increases with the ebbing away of the pandemic.
The Brexit and Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a lower than usual trade in January between the UK and the EU and after UK companies rushed to stockpile goods in December so that they do not face issues at the end of the Brexit transition period which ended on December 31.
Acknowledgement of the “teething problems” in trade was made by UK prime minster Boris Johnson just about a month into the new rules. Business groups have however warned of permanent higher costs of business for UK companies even after the ironing out of the initial complications.
Difficulties were faced by one third of the companies surveyed in terms of adapting to the changes in the rules and regulations to movement and trading of goods from the UK to the EU and vice versa, the BCC in the findings of the survey which was conducted in late January. Only about 10 per cent of the companies in the survey said they found it easy to accommodate to the new rules while 45 per cent of the respondents of the survey said that cross-border trade was not applicable to their business. About 16 per cent of the businesses said it was too early for them to judge the impact of cross border trade in a post Brexit system
However half of the companies who were directly involved in cross border trading with the EU said they faced difficulties in exporting goods while 51 per cent of the manufacturers also reported the same for importing of goods from the EU.
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
