Two months after the UK left the European Union, 74% of companies face problems in accessing the European market.
The Make UK Trade Group surveyed more than 200 of the UK’s leading industrial companies. The survey showed that 3 out of 4 firms suffer from bureaucracy and customs inspections, more than half also complained about rising costs. More than a third part reports the loss of sales markets.
Earlier News Front reported that the British authorities intend to simplify customs control at the border. Such plans are associated with the threat of serious food shortages. In addition, the government has committed £20 million to help small businesses adapt to new realities. However, comments from entrepreneurs indicate that trading activities are under serious strain and the situation may worsen.
“In the end we manage to deliver the goods, but it takes much longer. It’s not as smooth as it used to be. There are additional checks and documents, and it looks like they will actually increase in a few months, which is no longer worth the wait. This created a ton of unnecessary bureaucracy that didn’t exist before”, – said Ray Singh, managing director of Russel Finex.
Catherine Bedford, founder of the carbon fiber helmet business, also lamented that Brexit is killing her business.
“Because of Brexit, we went from profit to breakeven”, – she said.
“We cannot predict the delivery time as the goods are being held up by French customs, our point of entry in Europe. There is a huge backlog of orders and goods are returned despite the presence of documents”.
Data from Germany this week showed that imports from the UK fell more than 56% to 1.6 billion euros in January from the same month a year earlier.