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Brexit: the results

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2021 at 4:43am
Originally posted by Dai Guevara Dai Guevara wrote:

Aberfan - why do you think that I believe (from my last post)that the BBC is a left-wing organisation. Far from it. What I was saying was that there are certain topics where the BBC is totally one-sided and being almost 100% negative on Brexit is one of them. Even if it finds some advantage that Brexit bestows and can't avoid including in a broadcast, it will hardly be positive and will usually throw in some negative aspect to lessen the impact on the undecided.

Find some good news stories then, and post the links.

If Brexit was such a good idea, surely those papers that supported it - most of them - Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun etc. will be printing absolute reams of good news Brexit stories.

Post the links.

Let people make up their own minds, on the balance of the facts.

“You cannot reason a man out of what he never reasoned himself into.” (Jonathan Swift)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2021 at 4:56am
So then - some more Brexit stories:

Hauliers complain about paperwork delays


"John Simkins, general manager of Transmec UK Ltd, felt so strongly that he wrote to his local MP about the problems.

This is the first week of the new year which is usually quiet, but the systems already cannot cope. We have 10 people on the team dealing with this, all of them are exhausted after a week.

"I have worked in the industry for 40 years and can remember the customs processes before we joined the common market, but the current situation is worse."

"Before taking goods to Milan was similar to taking goods to Manchester, the only difference was the distance. Now our lorries have to stop at customs on their way out and again when they reach Italy. It all adds time.

"Some of the problems we've seen will be teething problems and we are all learning every day, but ultimately there's now an enormous layer of bureaucracy on both sides of the channel that wasn't there before and that won't go away."



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2021 at 5:01am
It's not only more difficult to export goods - importing has also become much more complicated, and expensive:

Financial guarantees required of importers - many quit

A British freight company director with more than 20 years’ experience has told how EU hauliers and transport companies are turning their backs on UK business because they are being asked to provide tens of thousands of pounds in guarantees to cover VAT or potential tariffs on arrival in Britain.

The financial guarantee requirement did not exist before Brexit and EU transport companies who previously provided a shipping service for small and medium-sized firms have decided they do not want the extra financial burden, according to Colin Jeffries, who runs Key Cargo International in Manchester.

“We’ve got people that are trying to bring textiles in from Italy but we are being told there is no haulage availability on that. Nobody’s willing to touch anything because of these guarantees. In Poland, we’re trying to get masks in for PPE in the workplace and we can’t get anyone to bring them over.”

Jeffries, who has been in the freight forwarding business for 24 years, said his business nearly came to a standstill last week because of the sudden trade barriers erected on 1 January.

He said it was “absolute carnage out there” trying to get EU hauliers to come to Britain, because they underestimated the gravity of the financial guarantees, known as T1s, that now apply to goods being exported to the UK.

A truck with a £200,000 cargo would need cash or a T1 financial guarantee document for £40,000 in VAT alone, he said, a significant burden for transport companies with multiple trucks going to the UK....

...data showed that an increasing number of freight groups rejected contracts to move goods from France to Britain in the second week of January.

Transporeon, a German software company that works with 100,000 logistics service providers, said freight forwarders had rejected jobs to move goods from Germany, Italy and Poland into Britain.

In the second week of January the rejection rate for transport to the UK was up 168% on the third quarter of 2020 and had doubled in the first calendar week of the year.

Jeffries said one of the problems was how complicated exporting to the UK had become.

While goods could sail through British ports before Brexit, now EU suppliers, like the UK exporters, had to provide a panoply of paperwork before export in addition to the T1 financial guarantee.

Apart from the customs declaration and the T1 financial guarantee they have to provide a Rex (registered exporter system) document to certify the origin of the product, which will determine whether tariffs will apply on entry to the UK or whether they are subject to preferential treatment.

Jeffries also hit out at the government for its repeated refrain to businesses instructing them to go to freight forwarders or customs agents to prepare them for Brexit.

“They haven’t issued freight forwarders with a magic book,” he said. “A lot of people think we have inside knowledge because the government says go to a freight forwarder or customs agent. But we haven’t been given any insight. We are researching this like everyone else and like everyone you can only gain access to some systems from 1 January so you had no time to test systems until it went live.”

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2021 at 5:10am
Exporting has become very difficult for small companies (even those not exporting perishables such as fish or meat).


Government ministers describe the post-Brexit headaches that British exporters have suffered since 1 January as mere “teething problems”. But Alex Paul, who jointly runs a successful family business that features in the Department for International Trade’s list of national “export champions”, disagrees. And he wants the real story to be told....

Paul is a director of Leon Paul, based in Hendon, north London, which employs 50 people. It is a niche business, which has been in his family since it was set up in 1921. It designs and manufactures equipment for the Olympic sport of sword fencing. But in many ways it is typical of tens of thousands of small companies that sold some of their goods at home and some abroad, and enjoyed seamless access to the border-free EU market for decades. “Previously the business of sending orders direct to customers in Europe was very straightforward,” he says.

“You put something in a box, sent it off with a courier and it got to the customer in a day or two days without any friction, just like sending something within this country.”

Almost a third of Leon Paul’s £7m annual turnover is to customers in EU countries. On average each order to the EU has been worth about £200. But the European export side of the business is now looking increasingly unsustainable.

“We did everything we could to prepare for Brexit and are part of the DTI’s export champion community,” says Paul. But since 1 January, his firm – like other UK exporters – has been hit by three new charges. And four days ago the firm discovered another one that his customers in the EU will have to pay on receiving the goods.

“As far as I can see, currently, companies like ours in the UK are not going to be able to do ‘end sales’ to customers in the EU any more. Particularly, small orders for anything under £100 will be completely impossible,” says Paul.

The new export levies, which he says will amount to £160,000 a year for Leon Paul, are first, a “Brexit charge”, as the couriers are calling it, an export fee of £4.50 for every parcel shipped to the EU to cover costs of extra administration and form filling that couriers must carry out.

Second, there is a “deferment account fee” of £5 per parcel that covers couriers’ costs of pre-paying import charges in the destination country; and third, a “disbursement charge” which is set at different levels in each EU country with a minimum of about €14 per parcel, or calculated as a percentage of the value of the goods, whichever is the higher, plus VAT in the destination country. This covers the costs of the tax authority in the recipient country inspecting and processing the parcels.

For the past fortnight Paul has been trying to work out how to absorb the extra costs. But he is struggling to see an easy way.

Jobs lost will be lost here,” he says. “That is the reality. All of these fees will come straight off profit margins.

“We might save some of the increased costs of doing business in Europe by setting up a warehouse there – and thereby avoid paying charges on every consignment – but we would have to make redundancies in our warehouse here and reduce the size of the business footprint in the UK. We are of course a relatively small business but all exporters will be hit with similar charges.”




Edited by aber-fan - 22 January 2021 at 5:11am
“You cannot reason a man out of what he never reasoned himself into.” (Jonathan Swift)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2021 at 6:03am
I have been VERY disappointed in the failure of Brexit supporters to post any good news stories linked to Brexit.

So much so, that I have decided to help them out - here's one:

Nissan says Brexit deal 'positive' and commits to UK

Japanese car maker Nissan has told the BBC its Sunderland plant is secure for the long term as a result of the trade deal reached between the UK and the EU.

It said it will move additional battery production close to the plant where it has 6,000 direct employees and supports nearly 70,000 jobs in the supply chain.

Currently, the batteries in its Leaf electric cars are imported from Japan.

Nissan would not confirm if this would mean additional jobs at Sunderland, which is the UK's largest car plant.

Manufacturing the more powerful batteries in the UK will ensure its cars comply with trade rules agreed with the EU requiring at least 55% of the car's value to be derived from either the UK or the EU to qualify for zero tariffs when exported to the EU.

Some 70% of the cars made in Sunderland are exported and the vast majority of them are sold in the EU.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55757930


COMMENT (for once): The point in bold is an important one for manufacturers. Some (like Nissan) will find a work-around, but others will not.


In the light of this decision by Nissan, it makes the decision by INEOS to build its Grenadier car in France all the more disappointing - especially as the company had initially said that (some of?) it would be built in Bridgend. 


Prominent Monaco-based Brexiter Jim Ratcliffe, who owns INEOS and whose net worth is around £21 billion (!) therefore reneged on his initial promise to Wales. INEOS has claimed the deciision had nothing to do with Brexit, but the delay in securing a trade deal could well have influenced the decision, IMO:


"the move is seen as a snub to Wales after Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a prominent Brexiteer, had said the Grenadier would be assembled at a new factory in Bridgend, close to the old Ford plant, creating 200 jobs and up to 500 in the long term. A second factory in Portugal was to build the Grenadier’s chassis."


"Production in the European Union means Ineos will avoid 10% export tariffs when shipping vehicles to buyers on the continent, which will be added to any cars built in the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit and defaulting to World Trade Organisation terms. The company will also avoid the same tariff on imports of components from Europe."


https://www.driving.co.uk/news/business/ineos-grenadier-4x4-built-france/


(Now, in the event - as we see from the Nissan story - the no-deal scenario didn't happen - but the delay in sorting out a deal could well have been a factor in this decision, I think.)


More on well-known non-UK taxpayer Ratcliffe, if you are interested:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Ratcliffe

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dic Penderyn Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 January 2021 at 6:39am
Originally posted by aber-fan aber-fan wrote:

I have been VERY disappointed in the failure of Brexit supporters to post any good news stories linked to Brexit.

So much so, that I have decided to help them out - here's one:

Nissan says Brexit deal 'positive' and commits to UK

Japanese car maker Nissan has told the BBC its Sunderland plant is secure for the long term as a result of the trade deal reached between the UK and the EU.

It said it will move additional battery production close to the plant where it has 6,000 direct employees and supports nearly 70,000 jobs in the supply chain.

Currently, the batteries in its Leaf electric cars are imported from Japan.

Nissan would not confirm if this would mean additional jobs at Sunderland, which is the UK's largest car plant.

Manufacturing the more powerful batteries in the UK will ensure its cars comply with trade rules agreed with the EU requiring at least 55% of the car's value to be derived from either the UK or the EU to qualify for zero tariffs when exported to the EU.

Some 70% of the cars made in Sunderland are exported and the vast majority of them are sold in the EU.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55757930


COMMENT (for once): The point in bold is an important one for manufacturers. Some (like Nissan) will find a work-around, but others will not.


In the light of this decision by Nissan, it makes the decision by INEOS to build its Grenadier car in France all the more disappointing - especially as the company had initially said that (some of?) it would be built in Bridgend. 


Prominent Monaco-based Brexiter Jim Ratcliffe, who owns INEOS and whose net worth is around £21 billion (!) therefore reneged on his initial promise to Wales. INEOS has claimed the deciision had nothing to do with Brexit, but the delay in securing a trade deal could well have influenced the decision, IMO:


"the move is seen as a snub to Wales after Ineos founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe, a prominent Brexiteer, had said the Grenadier would be assembled at a new factory in Bridgend, close to the old Ford plant, creating 200 jobs and up to 500 in the long term. A second factory in Portugal was to build the Grenadier’s chassis."


"Production in the European Union means Ineos will avoid 10% export tariffs when shipping vehicles to buyers on the continent, which will be added to any cars built in the UK in the event of a no-deal Brexit and defaulting to World Trade Organisation terms. The company will also avoid the same tariff on imports of components from Europe."


https://www.driving.co.uk/news/business/ineos-grenadier-4x4-built-france/


(Now, in the event - as we see from the Nissan story - the no-deal scenario didn't happen - but the delay in sorting out a deal could well have been a factor in this decision, I think.)


More on well-known non-UK taxpayer Ratcliffe, if you are interested:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Ratcliffe

The French granted Ineos a ready-made facility in Hambach-site of the former Mercedes plant.I think that was the biggest factor,but there's no doubting Ineos behaved pretty badly here.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2021 at 1:19pm
Today's bad news story:


A commercial cheesemaker in Cheshire has been left with a £250,000 Brexit hole in his business as a direct result of the UK’s departure from the EU on 1 January.

Simon Spurrell said he has lost 20% of his sales overnight after discovering he needed to provide a £180 health certificate on retail orders to consumers in the EU, including those buying personal gift packs of his award-winning wax-wrapped cheese worth £25 or £30.

He says he had hoped to take part in the “sunny uplands” promised by the government post-Brexit but has instead seen the viability of his online retail come to a “dead stop”.

“Our business had high hopes of continued growth in the EU market, after seeing the avoidance of the no-deal and announcement of a free trade deal.

“What has only become clear in the last week is that our successful B2C [business to consumer] online sales to EU consumers is now impossible to operate,” he said.

To save his business he will now have to switch a £1m investment he was planning to make in a new distribution centre in Macclesfield to the EU, with the loss of 20 jobs and tax revenue to the UK.

“It is a real shame because that means I’m now going to invest in France, provide French employment, and then contribute to the EU tax system, which was pretty much going against the whole reason that we were meant to be leaving.”

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2021 at 1:30pm
And, as a balance, a 'good news' story of sorts. It's clear the UK has acted much faster in ordering and delivering the various vaccines than EU countries... though, of course, only the second vaccine was developed in the UK (Johnson and the rest attempted to make out that 'approval' amounted in some way to 'creation' of the first approved vaccine, which was developed by Turkish immigrants in Germany and manufactured by American/multinational company Pfizer).

So - the UK were able to act faster, probably because we were outside the EU. (Less good news - the UK leads the world in deaths per 100k inhabitants).


Some quotes:

A second coronavirus vaccine manufacturer has warned of supply issues to the European Union, compounding frustration in the bloc.

AstraZeneca said a production problem meant the number of initial doses available would be lower than expected.

The fresh blow comes after some nations' inoculation programmes were slowed due to a cut in deliveries of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The EU Health Commissioner expressed "deep dissatisfaction" at the news.

Officials have not confirmed publicly how big the shortfall will be, but an unnamed EU official told Reuters news agency that deliveries would be reduced to 31m - a cut of 60% - in the first quarter of this year.

The drug firm had been set to deliver about 80 million doses to the 27 nations by March, according to the official who spoke to Reuters.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed with Oxford University, has not yet been approved by the EU's drug regulator but is expected to get the green light at the end of this month, paving the way for jabs to be given.


News of the delay comes amid criticism and frustration across the region about the speed of vaccination roll-outs.

Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the UK, and the US are all well ahead of EU nations in terms of doses given per capita so far.


(There is a bar graph showing this if you click on the link.)

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 January 2021 at 1:36pm
To finish off for today with a local story - this is how a Welsh lamb exporter is experiencing Brexit:


Some quotes:

One of Wales' largest lamb exporters says the extra cost and paperwork of selling meat into the EU means it is making "virtually nothing".

Meat processing plant Randall Parker Foods in Llanidloes, Powys, warned it may lose a third of its 150 workers unless new border controls change.

The company processes one million lambs a year, half of which are exported to the European Union.

The UK government said they are working to help exporters with the new rules.

Randall Parker Food's general manager Dale Williams said the UK's new post-Brexit trading relationship with the EU "means extra cost, tying someone up all day to do the paperwork for one vehicle".

"If there's multiple products it can take hours per product because we have to send the documents off to be verified before we can release the vehicle to go on its journey," he said.


As it stands today we're operating for virtually nothing. We're doing it for the sake of keeping the doors open at the moment."

Some staff have already been furloughed and Mr Williams fears he could lose a third of his business "which will make the company seriously unviable".

"If the export paperwork and documentation and controls either side of the border continue, I think we will have to make redundancies," he said.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 7:54am
Extra Brexit charges when goods cross UK-EU borders


There are quite a few similar stories in this report - below is the first example:

A couple of weeks ago Lili Piraki, a London-based journalist, was surprised by a text out of the blue from delivery firm DHL.

She was delighted to hear a friend had sent her a present: a pair of gold earrings from Greece. She was less impressed that she would have to pay nearly £30 in taxes to receive the gift.

The extra charges are a result of new post-Brexit rules that came into force on 1 January.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote aber-fan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 7:57am
You couldn't make this one up!

British businesses advised to set up bases in the EU to avoid red tape and extra charges

British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU in order to get around extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit...

In an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga, UK small businesses are being told by advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) that the best way to circumvent border issues and VAT problems that have been piling up since 1 January is to register new firms within the EU single market, from where they can distribute their goods far more freely.

The heads of two UK businesses that have been beset by Brexit-related problems have told the Observer that, following advice from experts at the Department for International Trade, they have already decided to register new companies in the EU in the next few weeks, and they knew of many others in similar positions. Other companies have also said they too were advised by government officials to register operations in the EU but had not yet made decisions.

Full story here:

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GPR - Rochester Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 8:38am
Many of the above stories have been copied direct from the BBC and are being classed as FACTS. Again most involve import charges, mainly VAT. Every trader in the UK who imported or exported to the EU was aware in early 2020 that VAT would become chargeable in both directions. My question is this - why is it being portrayed by the BBC as some sort of nasty surprise. Buy British no problems. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ladram Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 8:51am
they can drag as many bad facts as they want,we are out and have to adapt,i've stopped doing roofs in germany,france,spain and holland.LOL
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote surfing-mtber Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 9:07am
Originally posted by ladram ladram wrote:

they can drag as many bad facts as they want,we are out and have to adapt,i've stopped doing roofs in germany,france,spain and holland.LOL

ClapClapClapLOL
Joshua24:15
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote GPR - Rochester Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 9:09am
Originally posted by ladram ladram wrote:

they can drag as many bad facts as they want,we are out and have to adapt,i've stopped doing roofs in germany,france,spain and holland.LOL

Some common sense at last - can I quote it as FACT that you are no longer trading overseas unless, of course, that hotel re-roof in the Bahamas comes up. If it does I am available at competitive rates to be your gofer.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ladram Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 January 2021 at 9:13am
Originally posted by GPR - Rochester GPR - Rochester wrote:

Originally posted by ladram ladram wrote:

they can drag as many bad facts as they want,we are out and have to adapt,i've stopped doing roofs in germany,france,spain and holland.LOL

Some common sense at last - can I quote it as FACT that you are no longer trading overseas unless, of course, that hotel re-roof in the Bahamas comes up. If it does I am available at competitive rates to be your gofer.
your on,LOLLOL
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