Post-Brexit News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

The Brexit bill: £100bn hit to UK exports as toy, medical kit and jewellery sales slump

2 hours ago

Brexit is leaving a hole of almost £100bn in annual UK exports, making Britain’s economy worse off than if it had remained in the European Union, new analysis has claimed.

Businesses that make an array of products including sporting goods, children’s toys, jewellery and medical equipment have struggled the most with border costs imposed by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, leading to 30 per cent less trade between 2020 and 2023 than if Britain had stayed in the trading bloc.

Since leaving the single market, Britain’s export growth has been sluggish behind other advanced economies, leading to missed growth in goods and services exports of around £23bn quarterly, the analysis reveals.

John Springford, an associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER), a pro-EU think tank, said his analysis “shows that Brexit is leading to permanent depression to trade between the UK and the EU”.

“If Brexit hadn’t happened, and we can visit the universe where Remain won the referendum, then trade and [the economy] would be significantly higher,” he said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 91585.html

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Reform UK, a disgrace to society and this is why I don't watch right-wing looney networks like GB News and Talk TV.

[Time_Traveller]

Portsmouth's new Brexit border post could be demolished

Friday 22 March 2024 10:55, UK

A new £24m border control post may have to be demolished because repeated changes to post-Brexit border arrangements have left it commercially unviable.

The facility at Portsmouth International Port is due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of next month, but changes to border protocols since it was built mean half of the building will never be used.

Built with a £17m central government grant and £7m from Portsmouth City Council, which owns the port, it is designed to carry out checks on up to 80 truck loads of produce a day. The port now expects to process only four or five daily.

As a consequence, half of the 14 loading bays will never be used, and annual running costs of £800,000 a year will not be covered by the fees charged to importers for carrying out checks.

Portsmouth is not alone, with ports across the country puzzling over how to make the over-sized, over-specified buildings commissioned by the government pay for themselves with far less traffic.

https://news.sky.com/story/portsmouths- ... d-13099358

[Time_Traveller]

Say one thing, do another? The government’s record rise in net migration

2 hours ago



Think back to the 2019 election campaign. Quite reasonably, you may not remember every detail of the Conservatives' manifesto - but perhaps you do recall one promise: to reduce immigration.

Think back further, to 2016 and the Brexit referendum. Then there was a promise to "take back control" of the UK immigration system. And since it left the EU in 2020, the UK does have more control.

But the numbers of people who've moved here didn't go down, they went up.

Since the Brexit vote and the Conservatives' victory in 2019, the 12 months to June 2022 saw the fastest population growth since the 1960s. Current projections from the Office for National Statistics put the UK on course for 74 million people by 2036 - six million more than there are today.

You'd be well within your rights to ask how that could be? The answer, according to the ONS, is largely immigration.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68626430

[Time_Traveller]

‘You’ve got to be joking’: Mandelson dismisses prospect of UK rejoining EU

Wed 27 Mar 2024 14.38 GMT

Peter Mandelson has dismissed the prospect of an incoming Labour government taking Britain back into the EU, saying “you’ve got to be joking” that Brussels would want to renegotiate the UK’s membership.

The Labour peer, a former EU trade commissioner and close adviser to Keir Starmer, said rejoining the 27-country bloc would require a referendum that UK voters had little desire for, after the Conservatives’ botched handling of Brexit.

“I cannot see the British people running towards [a referendum] for love nor money after what we went through during the last one. I really do not think that people are going to run towards a repeat of that experience,” he told a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) event at Heathrow airport on Wednesday.

Lord Mandelson, speaking at the launch of the lobby group’s report on building “Global Britain” after the general election, added that a Starmer government would build closer ties with the EU without rejoining.

The EU wanted a more “stable, constructive relationship” with the UK, Mandelson continued, but there was no desire in Brussels for wholesale negotiation of the country’s return.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -eu-labour

For the UK to rejoin the EU, the country would need a drastic government change and one that is fully pro-EU in the decades ahead.

[Time_Traveller]

New post-Brexit tariff to apply to UK cars going to Canada

20 hours ago



From Monday, any cars the UK exports to Canada will face an additional 6% tariff, or tax.

The change comes after a post-Brexit agreement to continue EU trading terms expired without a new deal.

The new tariffs are determined by whether the UK products exported to Canada use EU parts and materials.

Limits, which had been waived, will now apply, meaning that certain exports, including cars, will not qualify for zero-tariff trade.

In 2023, 1.3% of British-built cars were exported to Canada, making it the UK's eighth largest market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which represents the UK car industry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68688486

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Food price fears as Brexit import charges confirmed

11 minutes ago



The government has revealed how much companies will have to pay to import foods due to Brexit.

Small imports of products such as fish, salami, sausage, cheese and yoghurt will be subject to up to a £145 fee from 30 April, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Details about the charges have been postponed several times.

The Cold Chain Federation said the new charges would hit food prices.

Its chief executive Phil Pluck said the fee would have to be passed on to "either the EU importer, the smaller UK retailer, or the UK consumer".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68726852

[wjfox]