A week after Brexit, how are the UK and the EU getting on? Not very well, it seems

Last Updated: January 9, 2021By Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was going to leave the headline as a rhetorical question but too many people would have tried to answer without reading the article.

And who can blame them? It all seems a nasty mess at the moment. But are these really only teething problems?

Here comes the list:

The UK and the EU are heading towards a confrontation over financial services after trading in £6 billion worth of euro-dominated shares started moving to European continental stock exchanges in Amsterdam and Paris.

UK financial service providers and banks have lost the so-called passport that gave them the right to operate without restrictions throughout the EU, and now depend on unilateral decisions from European authorities to extend them an “equivalence” based on regulatory convergence, sector by sector.

Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey has said the UK should not become a so-called “rule taker” by mimicking EU regulations just for the sake of obtaining an access to European markets.

To This Writer’s uncultured eye, he seems to be saying we should lose a lot of business. Or is he he suggesting that trade will come back to the UK if businesses see an advantage in trading outside EU regulations?

This is not likely to sort itself out for several years.

Marks & Spencer has discovered holes in the so-called “zero tariff” trade deal with the EU that means its Percy Pig sweets – manufactured in Germany, transported to the UK, and then re-exported to other countries like Ireland – would face taxation and bureaucratic “red tape” costs.

The firm has already dropped hundreds of products, including chocolate fudge pudding and sweet and sour chicken, from its Northern Ireland stores after it saw competitors’ lorries barred from travelling between the mainland and Northern Ireland.

John Lewis has scrapped deliveries of its products to EU countries (although the firm says this is because of a business decision to concentrate on the UK). Debenhams and Fortnum & Masons have also suspended deliveries to Ireland and the EU respectively, blaming uncertainty over post-Brexit trading rules.

Scottish seafood firms are already facing financial difficulty as new post-Brexit rules demand that every single box has to be offloaded from lorries, opened and checked by vets before leaving Scotland – creating five-hour delays per lorry.

And overseas customers are cancelling orders – putting the £1 billion-per-year business in jeopardy.

Expect much more of the same in the future.

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2 Comments

  1. Hecuba January 9, 2021 at 11:57 am - Reply

    Fascist tories claimed little england would amass huge wealth once we left the EU and look what’s happened!

    Little England is the loser and rightly companies are ceasing trading with EU because it is not ‘worth it’ financially!

    Scottish seafood firms will soon become bankrupt but hey they’re Scottish not English so the fascist tories don’t care!

    Why would EU customers purchase from ‘little england suppliers’ given these customers would have to pay huge sums in tax to little england!

    Well done fascist tories – the only ones benefitting are the greedy fascist tory billionaires who know their tax havens are safe and the EU can’t now force them to pay any tax!

  2. Growing Flame January 10, 2021 at 10:54 am - Reply

    I wonder if the “behind the scenes” solutions to these trading problems will involve unannounced instructions to customs staff to just ease up on the real checks. To tell the voters that Britain is out of the EU but to slowly revert to a situation akin to still being in the bloc.
    Not really checking ALL the seafood boxes.
    Not really taking the time to check all the paperwork. Just waving most lorries through and only checking a few in any depth.
    I have travelled from France to Switzerland on several occasions ie out of the EU into a non-EU country, and the “border” clearly exists but is barely staffed and carries out minimal checks. The delays would be horrendous if they really checked every car and lorry and pedestrian properly.

    Brexit was always a kind of fantasy and the fantasy may be prolonged if the voters are told about how the UK will no longer accept EU rules etc . But most voters don’t work in haulage or customs and , so, will not see the reality on the ground.
    In the end, anything produced in the EU, whether electronics, car parts, cucumbers, wine, or cat food is BOUND to be produced according to EU rules. It would be illegal in the EU otherwise! But those goods will be imported into the UK regardless of all the “sovereignty” talk.
    Similarly, if a UK firm wishes to sell something to the EU, the EU customers will, of course, insist that the UK items meet the EU standards as not doing so would prevent them being sold.
    Again, the trade will be conducted according to rules and standards that are drawn up in the EU with the UK, if being sensible, agreeing to them to keep the trade going.

    There may be a long period of disruption at the ports before us,and the Tories admit this. But they also re assure us that these “teething problems” will be overcome. I am sure that they will!
    By quietly ignoring the fantasy of Brexit “sovereignty” and accepting the need to merge UK and EU rules and standards .
    But never telling the Leave voters about it!

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