UK exports

Interesting twitter thread. Lewis Goodall reporting on evidence to the Scottish Affairs Select Committee.

One witness (there are others reported):

my sense is there’s only been two measure as to whether Brexit has been a disaster 1) empty supermarket shelves 2) pileups of lorries in Kent. Reality is we haven’t seen empty shelves yet because inward checks haven’t started yet. And there are no pile ups because 68% of lorries are carrying fresh air right now as volumes are so thin...The border operating model is 168 pages, it’s complex and was published on Hogmanay. And it’s been updated since...we were doomed from the start.”

This is not just a seafood issue. Our red meat grade volumes are sitting about 25-30% of normal. We can’t export fresh mince into the EU, we can’t trade live sheep to Northern Ireland, we can’t export seed potatoes to the EU...these are nightmarish consequences.

twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1357292569512837121

There should have been much more checking in the UK, the rules have been ignored by many of us.

This made me smile.
So there is still a border. www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-55966155

It is crazy, even the good stuff that the EU brought has gone, it’s caused a lot of problems because they don’t recognize any of our standards. It was our choice to leave, we could have adopted EU standards in a great many areas but it’s all gone.

It's utterly ridiculous to have a border between NI and GB.

Given the bizarre decision that we had to leave every single institution with 'eu' in its name this border was absolutely inevitable. The only way it could be avoided was to leave the whole of the UK in the customs union (May's 'backstop'). But the ERG nutters didn't want that.

The real tragedy is that no-one really considered the implications of Brexit for NI. If it was mentioned it was waved aside...

Casdon

MaizieD you’re right, but Northern Ireland is part of the UK, they are part of the ‘we’ and are being treated very shoddily I think.

I feel very depressed about it all.. It hasn't affected me much so far apart from John Lewis won't deliver and I had to try three places on Amazon before I found one to deliver seeds. Suttons won't deliver.
I am listening to a discussion on Radio Ulster atm and a man has been unable to get a mattress from some UK companies. I foresee a great rise in prices for NI from GB and according to the present speaker, we have the lowest disposable income in the UK.

It's utterly ridiculous to have a border between NI and GB.

In theory anything crossing a border is liable to VAT, that applies in both directions, there is a lower limit for presents etc but everything has to be declared for inspection.
So for practical purposes buy from a UK retailer and he will handle the VAT documentation but even that’s not as easy as before.

MaizieD you’re right, but Northern Ireland is part of the UK, they are part of the ‘we’ and are being treated very shoddily I think.

That makes a lot more sense MaizieD.

This explains why there's a problem, I think.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/08/firms-including-ms-suspend-eu-exports-over-brexit-smallprint

Businesses had very little time to prepare as the Trade Deal was signed a matter of days before transition ended and until then business had no idea what the terms would be.
Everything being sent to the EU now has to have a customs declaration with it and whether or not it can go tariff free depends on how much UK made/produced content it has. This isn't always easy to determine.

If the paperwork isn't correct the vehicle can be held up or turned back.

So many delivery businesses, as well as retailers and exporters who sell into the EU have decided to stop trading until they get themselves sorted. It's not their fault that the Agreement was made so late in the day... They knew 'something' was coming, but not exactly 'what'.

NI is in a much worse state than the we are...

Someone told me that was happening on other UK sites too.

I understand Europe not being ready. It was the UK making the decisions about stuff. But why aren't UK companies ready? They knew it was coming.

NotSpaghetti - Not on the High Street is still advertising they ship to Europe, but it has been removed as a delivery option. My local large post office has stopped accepting parcels for France too. ‘Normal service is expected to be resumed at some point in the future’.

Northern Ireland people must be so fed up, it said on the news yesterday that many things are out of stock in the supermarkets, and they can’t expect more normal deliveries to be resumed until April. Really poor show.

I think the French Amazon had a couple of copies, Welshwife.

Poor folk in NI aren’t getting deliveries from the U.K. mainland from lots of stores. They will be better off ordering from the EU. Couldn’t make it up.

I thought "Not on the High Street" was a platform of individuals selling separately under the NotHS umbrella? Surely they can't all not be sending items to Europe?

“Not on the High Street” are not posting to Europe at the moment . I ordered personalised items for my new baby grandson in France (who I have not been able to visit due to Covid). The order was cancelled. Also my Christmas parcel containing cards and a cashmere top arrived damaged with contents missing.

Does the French Amazon site stock the books? I have ordered books from the UK site and they have been delivered from the French site.
Apologies if you have addressed this and I have missed it!

No, unfortunately not Felice. For now, the librarian has sourced 1 or 2 copies from several different European sites to make up a class set for the text we need immediately. For the rest, I will either carry them back (if I get to go back to the UK) or try for an English language bookshop in France or Germany.

Yes, quite Varian!

Do you know anyone with links to the UK Embassy or representation, they may be able to organise the books via the diplomatic 'pouch'.
We have sent containers of stuff to Africa that way.

Frictionless trade as promised ?

We cancelled an order from Germany as it went from a total price inc vat and delivery to a cheaper price (the vat) not inc vat (ok), or delivery or import duty. Asked what the delivery charge will be they didn’t know - why would it change? Import duty - no idea! This is a well established German company who were totally unprepared for Brexit. Their loss, we found the product in the UK, slightly more expensive but delivered free next day.

Dont get me started on Hermes - needs a thread if it’s own but it is nothing to do with Brexit

Hermes use local deliverers who use their own cars for deliveries. I would imagine that a gaming chair would be too big to get into the average car.

It was a gaming chair. I really didn't see why JL didn't deliver it themselves. Hermes are notoriously unreliable.

Oooer, I wonder what his gift is that's so big!

That is bad because my friend was told very early December that she couldn't get them to post due to termination of international orders.