UK’s exports to EU lose billions after Brexit « Euro Weekly News

By Pune Media On Dec 4, 2024 30

Britain’s exports are suffering as red tape imposed after Brexit creates massive delays
Credit:Shutterstock: Thomas Holt

Britains exports to the EU are taking a hit following Brexit and layers of complex border check bureaucracy

Since Brexit hit the UK, a good few years ago now, there have been some sharp surprises for the country – and not always good ones. With changes to EU legislation including trading and commerce, travel and even banking, Britain might have just teetered a little too far with some of the decisions made.

British businesses are biting back, blaming mind-boggling Brexit bureaucracy for the £3bn-a-year hit to food exports. The latest lowdown from the Centre of Inclusive Trade Policy (CITP) has revealed that shipping of UK food and agricultural products to the EU has actually fallen by an average of 16 per cent across the three years since Britain divorced the single market. In money terms, this means a £2.82bn a year drop in produce travelling from Britain to the EU bloc.

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Ok, so its true that the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the COVID pandemic have coincided with Brexit changes, yet surely figures would have begun to pick up by now. The worrying thing is that they haven’t! In fact, they show no signs of returning to previous levels.

Decline in British exports to EU due to layers of new Brexit legislation

Industry experts have blamed the decline on layers and layers of regulation added to the already complicated process of exporting products to Europe since Brexit. Lost in the labyrinth of paperwork and bureaucracy, it’s no wonder products are not getting there or even being imported by other countries.

Before the infamous Brexit referendum, there was frictionless trade between the EU and the UK. Yet changes came along with the end of the Brexit limbo period in 2021, when border checks and new health certificates for agricultural food products came into force.

Worse still is for those involved in imports and exports, dealing with a new avalanche of paperwork. Sean Ramsden, the CEO of wholesaler Ramsden International, told Sky News that he felt obliged to contract nine extra people just to deal with “horrendous” new paperwork requirements. Not only this, his food range has shrunk, costs have soared and the time of shipping has increased from about three days to three weeks due to regulatory delays which means limitations to exports. He said: “The EU went from being the easiest market in the world to quite literally the most difficult to get food into.” He added: “The regulation work involved, the complexity is mind-boggling to the point that it’s significantly shrunk our European business. We are trading less than half what we previously had.There’s not anybody in the food industry that will not say Brexit is the biggest impairment to export sales… it’s been absolutely horrendous.”

Labour plans on agreements between UK and EU to ease food trade

Despite dubious popularity at the moment with unpopular budget proposals and plans to increase taxes, Labour have pledged to step in to save the food industry. Referring to a type of vetting agreement in their manifesto, they will aim to reduce excessive border control checks and mitigate rising food costs.

Its not only whats going out but also whats coming in that’s at risk. While the UK has been out of the loop with the EU’s food standards, it turns out that the EU has been upping the game with pesticides and hazardous substances, while the UK has preferred to focus on its stricter animal welfare standards. This means that there is a misalignment in terms of trade, which needs to be readjusted. Marco Forgione, director general at The Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade urges for countries which are so close to enforce veterinary agreements as simple as possible to ease trade.

Until then, watch those food bills!