Brexit news

Exports to the EU from GB have dropped by 40%. During the same period imports from the EU have dropped by 20%. This might suggest that the EU doesn't need us as much as we need them.

Furthermore the problems with paperwork are likely to continue for some time because apparently the UK is short of 50,000 people to deal with the export documents.

With imports it’s the shipping costs and VAT that are the issue, many companies on both sides have not got to grips with this. If you are buying from Poland it’s their VAT, the same with every other state, it was easy before, integrated, now it’s not.

It should be possible for companies to export free of VAT if you’re registered in the UK but they’re not, then UK VAT is added on top. It’s a mess!.

GrannyGravy13

Urmstongran

Good to hear the voice of informed reason there GG13.
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We mainly import, the small amount exported was stopped at the beginning of Covid due to shutdown of EU Countries, and has yet to restart one year on, absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.

If you mainly import then the Brexit restrictions won't have hit you yet, as imports from the EU are being waved through as though we were still in the Single Market. I believe this is due to finish at the end of June.

I'd be interested to know how it affects you then...

^That’s quite a sneery post to start the day off MaizieD.
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The problem with selling shellfish isn’t just about EU required paperwork as a third country.

Deservedly sneery, I think.

Your reaction is precisely as I predicted.

It is not a paperwork issue. Did you not understand a word of what I wrote?

It’s also tied in with the pandemic as restrictions mean no-one is eating out anything like as much! Restaurants aren’t placing orders even in Europe as businesses there are closed at present or have hardly any customers.

Restaurants are not the only purchasers of live shellfish, you know.

But the issue for the shellfish industry is that they cannot export any of their product because of EU regulations which the UK was instrumental in making. A decade ago.

“In January, the Government made available £23 million for seafood exporters that suffered a financial loss because of delays related to the export of fresh or live fish and shellfish to the EU.

And how on earth is that going to make up for the permanent loss of their EU market?

Of course, the government could make an effort to bring our coastal waters up to grade A standard, but I doubt there's any money in that for their friends and acquaintances.

That’s quite a sneery post to start the day off MaizieD.

That's "sneery"? Have you seen the constant bullyboy chant of "Get over it. You lost" group, whose rudeness and ignorance is now legendary?

Lost what?

Lost any chance of a united country.
Lost the little bit of sovereignty we had bargained with for an extremely good trade deal to allow us to bargain away a whole lot more sovereignty for worse deals.
Lost our standing in the world.
Lost our parliamentary democracy to liars and thieves

I could go on, but you would not listen and each of the lies about why this is happening, are the truths of the Brexiteers. If those who shout so loudly about Brexit as a "win" stood back and looked they would see it is very much a pyrrhic victory.

Oops sorry Urmstongran that reply was meant for Whitewavemark2

Urmstongran

Good to hear the voice of informed reason there GG13.
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We mainly import, the small amount exported was stopped at the beginning of Covid due to shutdown of EU Countries, and has yet to restart one year on, absolutely nothing to do with Brexit.

That’s quite a sneery post to start the day off MaizieD.
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The problem with selling shellfish isn’t just about EU required paperwork as a third country. It’s also tied in with the pandemic as restrictions mean no-one is eating out anything like as much! Restaurants aren’t placing orders even in Europe as businesses there are closed at present or have hardly any customers.

Things will pick up this summer but until then the government here have stepped in with financial aid for UK fishermen.

This, from the Cornish local newspaper ‘The Packet’:

“In January, the Government made available £23 million for seafood exporters that suffered a financial loss because of delays related to the export of fresh or live fish and shellfish to the EU.

Defra say it will now be expanding the eligibility criteria to target catching and shellfish aquaculture businesses which have been affected by a reduction in demand from the hospitality sector in the UK and abroad, as well as disruption of exports to the EU. These expanded criteria will mean more businesses can get the support they need.“

Nothing to do with ‘believing’.

Whitewavemark2

I think that the issue with live food like shell fish etc, was that previously the trade and delivery was frictionless which meant that the food could be delivered within hours of being caught.

This can now never be the case. The fisherman are stymied.

The issue with shellfish, which has, at a stroke, completely and irrevocably destroyed the industry's ability to export to the EU, is that most of the UK's fishing waters are designated grade B (i.e. impure, dirty, unclean, call it what you will) and the EU does not permit the import of shellfish from grade B waters. This regulation has been in existence for nearly a decade and was, in fact, vigorously pushed for by the British at the time it was formulated. It should have come as absolutely no surprise to the shellfish industry.

While we were still members of the EU we could export our 'impure' shellfish to the EU where they would be subject to purification before being sold. We can no longer do that. The industry says that purification of shellfish for export cannot take place in the UK because it shortens the life of the shellfish and they cannot export dead or dying shellfish to a market which requires them to be alive and healthy.

Now, I'm sure that our Brexit supporters will be utterly dismissive of the explanation given by the shellfish industry and designate them a bunch of whinging Remainers who just aren't trying hard enough to overcome the obstacles that their vote and the government they chose to implement it have put in the path of what was previously completely easy and frictionless trade.

I'm sure that Brexit supporters know the shellfish industry far better than those people whose living it has been and they have an easy solution to their problems if only those fisherpeople would just believe a bit harder... but those silly shellfish exporters have just sat back and taken £1000s in losses and done nothing but moan about it.

How dare they be such ungrateful sods after all that Nigel Farage did for them...

To which European country do you export gg13?

I think that the issue with live food like shell fish etc, was that previously the trade and delivery was frictionless which meant that the food could be delivered within hours of being caught.

This can now never be the case. The fisherman are stymied.

Perhaps those supporters bogging on about all those “opportunities” opening up would like to explain what they are to the fishermen who are going out of business.

Urmstongran
Thanks for your question, I will try and learn more details and get back to you but know it concerns complex paper work.

Welshwife thank you for acknowledging my post, I don't know the most up to date problems but will ask and let you know.

Good to hear the voice of informed reason there GG13.
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There are no restrictions coming this way as far as I’ve read in the press Nana3 so I’m very sorry to learn this isn’t so in your husband’s line of business. Would you care to explain what has gone wrong for him? I was led to understand that the EU to the UK had a much longer transition time. Unless of course you live in N.I.? Now that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

varian

Today's edition of The Bottom Line" on Radio 4 is very illuminating. Business owners describe the lengths they are having to go to in order to "make it work"

But d’you know what varian? They WILL make it work. Money talks. Always has. Deals WILL be struck.

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As I have repeatedly posted.........we have a SME, we import from inside and outside EU , things have changed but they are not insurmountable...........onwards and upwards,

I haven't seen anyone on this thread harping on about how great the EU is

Well that’s a first.
Perhaps, as polls are starting to show, the scales are beginning to fall from people’s eyes.

I am sorry to learn that Nana3. Has he had problems importing things he needs? I understood it was still easy for things to get into U.K. as the British customs etc were not stopping shipments until the summer. I know that many haulage companies which are still delivering to U.K. are returning to Europe empty because of the red tape needed for loads.

I am heartbroken watching my husband try to keep his import business afloat as prices from Europe rise.
His physical health has become shot at.

I do live in the EU but I still have family in the U.K. and make frequent trips back when things are normal. Why would I want to see the U.K. on its knees - I have no wish to see my family out of work or finding things more difficult. I know no Brits living around here who wish the U.K. ill. It is sadness about how things are turning out.
The U.K. govt are doing a lot of shouting from the sidelines about what they will do but whether they will be able to follow through is yet to be seen.
Exactly how are the EU playing silly buggers? Which regulations have they altered?

varian

Today's edition of The Bottom Line" on Radio 4 is very illuminating. Business owners describe the lengths they are having to go to in order to "make it work"

Brexiters really don't care, varian.

Today's edition of The Bottom Line" on Radio 4 is very illuminating. Business owners describe the lengths they are having to go to in order to "make it work"

And it would be a great help if everyone accepted that and stopped harping on about how great the EU is.

I haven't seen anyone on this thread harping on about how great the EU is. We're just harping on about how totally crap Brexit is.

And, believe you me, we shall harp on, in public, for as long as we please. I, for one, have absolutely no intention whatsoever to 'accept' this monumental act of national self harm.