SURVEY FINDINGS
• More than three quarters (77%) of firms, for which the Brexit deal is applicable, say it is not helping them increase sales or grow their business
• More than half (56%) of firms face difficulties adapting to the new rules for trading goods
• Almost half (45%) face difficulties adapting to the new rules for trading services, and a similar number (44%) report difficulties obtaining visas for staff
IMPACT
The trade deal has increased costs and it has increased bureaucracy.
This means UK businesses are less competitive in the EU and are losing out on trade
This isn’t just about trade volumes. Smaller businesses have really suffered. The range of products we export to the EU has decreased by over 40%. That can’t be good for our competitiveness or the resilience of our economy
In the two years the TCA has been in place no steps have been taken to ease any of the new difficulties it has created.
The longer this goes on the more EU customers seek out new suppliers and the more difficult the situation becomes for UK firms.
SOLUTIONS
• Businesses want political leaders on both sides to move on from the debates of the past and find ways to trade more freely.
• This means an honest dialogue about how we can improve our trading relationship with the EU.
• With a recession looming we must remove the shackles holding back our exporters so they can play their part in the UK’s economic recovery.
• There are clearly some structural problems built into the TCA which cannot be addressed until it is reviewed in 2026.
• But as we set out in our report to Government there are some issues that do not need to wait on months of negotiations or major reviews to be fixed.
QUICK FIXES
1. Create a supplementary deal with the EU which either eliminates or reduces the complexity of exporting food for SMEs.
2. Establish a supplementary deal, like Norway’s, that exempts smaller firms from the requirement to have a fiscal representative for VAT in the EU
3. Allow CE marked goods and components to continue to be used in Great Britain after 2024.
4. Make side deals with the EU and member states to allow UK firms to travel for longer and work in Europe.
5. Reach an agreement on the future of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland with the European Commission in the early months of 2023, to stabilise our trading relationship.
CASE STUDIES
“Customs on both sides of the EU border seem to have a separate set of rules to be able to charge different amounts for the same thing. We don’t know until it’s too late what these costs are.”
Retailer in Dundee
“Leaving the EU made us uncompetitive with our EU customers. We would have lost all of our EU trade without a base in the EU. This has cost our business a huge amount of money which could have been invested in the UK had it not been for Brexit.”
Retailer in Ayrshire
“Exporting goods into the EU since Brexit, continues to prove difficult. We have experienced a lot of our goods going missing when they reach customs control. Due to additional import costs, we have found that quite a few of our EU customers that we have dealt with for a long time, in regard to providing a qualifying service, now stay within the EU instead of the UK.”
Manufacturer in the East Midlands
“Brexit has been the biggest ever imposition of bureaucracy on business. Simple importing of parts to fix broken machines or raw materials from the EU have become a major time-consuming nightmare for small businesses, and Brexit related logistics delays are a massive cost when machines are stood waiting for parts. We used to export lesser amounts to the EU, but the bureaucracy makes it no longer worthwhile.”
Manufacturer in Dorset
