Announcement of a delay is sensible given the ongoing issues with ensuring trader readiness, the need to build more border control posts and the skills shortages crisis.
Announcement of a delay is sensible given the ongoing issues with ensuring trader readiness, the need to build more border control posts and the skills shortages crisis.
Figures remain concerning. Taken in conjunction with German trade data from earlier this week, the UK is clearly doing less trade with the EU than 3 years ago.
William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, “The Government needs to work now with businesses to ensure full consideration to the impacts are given before any decision to completely pull the plug on CE-marked goods, risking incurring costs to our economy that we may come to regret.”
Comparing June 2021 with June 2018, the last stable period before EU exit, total UK exports, including to the EU, were down by 7.4% and imports by 2%. This is a further signal of the dampening effect on UK-EU trade caused by the move to the new trading arrangements under the TCA.
Responding to the news that fully vaccinated travellers from the EU and US will not have to quarantine, British Chambers of Commerce Co-Executive Director, Claire Walker, said: “For the hundreds of thousands of people directly employed in the travel industry and the many more that are part of supply chains, this will be welcome news."
Responding to yesterday's ONS trade statistics, William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “The pandemic and the shift to new trading conditions in how UK companies sell services to the EU have led to a clear reduction in UK-EU services trade compared with 2019. Today’s ONS data release shows services trade with the EU fell at a brisker rate than trade with the rest of the world over the two years to the end of March 2021. Services exports to the EU fell by 14.7% in that period and imports by 38.8%."
Responding to the announcement of the new UK approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said: “Businesses in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland need durable, workable, negotiated solutions on compliance with the Protocol to ensure the continued two-way flow of goods East-West and North-South. The UK Government and EU need to work together to find solutions which work for business."
The UK government should seek to expand trade opportunities for UK businesses in the switch to greener technologies and practices.
Hard-pressed companies will need further support into next year as they adjust to this new phase of the biggest change in trading terms with the rest of Europe for half a century.
While we are seeing a modest pick-up in demand for UK goods in the last month as economies reopen, the overall climate remains fragile
