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Businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire want EU trade improvements

Business leaders in Coventry and Warwickshire have joined calls for improvements to the UK’s trade deal with the EU.

New research carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) of more than 1,000 businesses has highlighted a host of issues with the deal with Europe.

Overall, just eight per cent of firms agreed that the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) was ‘enabling their business to grow or increase sales’, while 54 per cent disagreed. For UK exporters, 12 per cent agreed that the TCA was helping them while 71 per cent disagreed.

The research comes just over a year on from the trade deal being signed and has seen firms calling for action from both the Government and the EU.

Tom Mongan, president of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “It’s been more than a year since the deal was signed and many companies across the patch and across the country are still struggling with many aspects of it.

“It has led to rising costs, as well as delays, and just a general perception from customers in the EU that it is now a much more expensive and complex process to deal with businesses in the UK.

“This is making life more difficult for regional businesses at a time when they want to be pushing for stronger growth in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.

“When it comes to trade policy around the world, of course we want businesses to look at markets beyond the EU but, as our closest trading partner, we need a better solution to be found.”

William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the BCC, said: “This is the latest BCC research to clearly show there are issues with the EU trade deal that need to be improved. Yet it could be so different. There are five relatively simple steps that UK and EU policymakers could take to ease the burden placed on businesses struggling with the trade deal.

“Nearly all of the businesses in this research have fewer than 250 employees and these smaller firms are feeling most of the pain of the new burdens in the TCA.

“Many of these companies have neither the time, staff or money to deal with the additional paperwork and rising costs involved with EU trade, nor can they afford to set up a new base in Europe or pay for intermediaries to represent them.

“But if both sides take a pragmatic approach, they could reach a new understanding on the rules and then build on that further.

“Accredited Chambers of Commerce support the UK Government’s ambition to massively increase the number of firms exporting. If we can free up the flow of goods and services into the EU, our largest overseas market, it will go a long way to realising that goal.”

The British Chambers of Commerce has drafted solutions to five of the key issues involving trade with the EU. They are:

ISSUE: Export health certificates cost too much and take up too much time for smaller food exporters.

SOLUTION: We need a supplementary deal on this which either eliminates or reduces the complexity of exporting food for these firms.

ISSUE: Some companies are being asked to register in multiple EU states for VAT in order to sell online to customers there.

SOLUTION: We need a supplementary deal, like Norway’s with the EU. This exempts the smallest firms from the requirement to have a fiscal representative and incur these duplicate costs.

ISSUE: As things stand CE marked industrial and electrical products will not be permitted for sale on the market in Great Britain from January 2023. The same is true for components and spares.

SOLUTION: We need action from the Government to help businesses with these timelines. Many firms are far from convinced about a ban on CE marked goods in Great Britain.

ISSUE: UK firms facing limitations on business travel and work activities in the EU.

SOLUTION: Government needs to make side deals with the EU and member states to boost access in this area as a priority for 2022.

ISSUE: Companies starting to be pursued in respect of import customs declarations deferred from last year.

SOLUTION: We need a pragmatic approach to enforcement to ensure companies recovering from the pandemic do not face heavy-handed demands too quickly on import payments, or paperwork.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .