The end of the Brexit transition period is already impacting the cycling industry – and while the dust is likely to be settling on the UK’s new relationship with the EU for some time to come, and what the implications of that might be, we’re beginning to get an idea of a few of the emerging issues.
We suspect that it will take several weeks at least for the situation to become fully clear for a number of reasons, not least the ongoing disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Another issue is that with the deal between the UK and the EU only signed off on Christmas Day, and last Monday effectively being the first full working day back on both sides of the Channel, many businesses simply will not have had time or resources to wade through the documentation and assess the implications of the new relationship.
One change that has hit the headlines is the UK’s new rules on value added tax (VAT) and its impact on brands and retailers in the EU selling to customers in the UK – with some having suspended, whether temporarily or permanently, sales to consumers here.
As we reported last weekend, online retailer Dutch Bike Bits – owned by David Hembrow, the long-time cycling campaigner who moved from the UK to the Netherlands in 2007 – says it can no longer accept orders from UK customers due to a change in VAT rules. The story has subsequently been picked up by the mainstream media, including the BBC.
We’ve also seen Brooks England, which makes its saddles in the West Midlands, suspend orders via its website to shoppers in the UK, because goods are dispatched from its parent company’s facility in Italy. Its products are still available here via bike shops, and while the company hasn’t said that the VAT changes are specifically to blame, we suspect they are part of the equation.
> Brooks England stops online sales of ‘Made in Britain’ saddles to UK shoppers – because of Brexit
Campagnolo too has said that “all sales with delivery to the UK are suspended until new updates,” pending “EU dispositions with regard to the Brexit situation.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) says that with effect from 11pm on 31 December, when the transition period ended, consignments of goods with an aggregate value of £135 or less (excluding shipping costs) will have VAT added at the point of sale, whether in the EU or elsewhere abroad.
That means that brands or online retailers based abroad that sell directly to shoppers in the England, Scotland and Wales (separate rules apply to Northern Ireland) must register with HMRC for VAT and account for the tax on goods sold here below that threshold, including paying an annual fee to do so – something that Dutch Bike Bits, to return to that example, says makes it impossible to continue selling to people here due to the costs and the administrative burden involved.
The rules are similar, to some extent, to ones drawn up by the EU to modernise VAT for cross-border e-commerce that were due to have come into effect on 1 January but which, due to the coronavirus crisis, have been pushed back until 1 July – the big difference, of course, being that the UK is now a third country.
HMRC says that the rules do not apply to goods sold through online marketplaces (OMPs) “where they are involved in facilitating the sale,” with the OMP being “responsible for collecting and accounting for the VAT.”
So, signing up to an OMP such as Amazon, the world’s largest retailer full stop, might appear to remove a lot of the burden for small businesses in the EU looking to sell into the UK – except for one crucial change the online giant made towards the end of last year.
As of 18 December, with the end of the transition period looming, Amazon dropped the UK from its Pan-European programme – meaning that retailers in the EU wanting to sell to customers in Great Britain would have to fork out to ship their goods to the company’s warehouse here, something for which Amazon previously footed the bill.
Other issues we are aware of include increased shipping costs, both as a result of Brexit with carriers specifically increasing their rates from the EU to the UK due to the additional paperwork involved, and due to shortage of containers globally chiefly resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, as well as confusion regarding what are termed ‘rules of origin’, and we will be looking at those separately in the coming days.
90 thoughts on “Brexit: New VAT rules see EU cycling brands stop online sales to UK shoppers”
But… But… But: “Sunlit
But… But… But: “Sunlit uplands”… “Best trade deals ever”… “Oven-ready”… “Jumpers for goalposts”… 😉
World leading, world beating,
World leading, world beating, the wheels on the red bus go round and round trade deal……
I mean who knew leaving
I mean who knew leaving frictionless trade would be barriers on (checks notes) trading? FFS.
Were you misold Brexit then call our no win no fee team now.
And thankyou to all the
And thankyou to all the idiots who thought they’d get something better (when obviously only the rich will do well out of brexit), you’ve messed all the posting to Ireland up too, cheers for that. Selfish gammon idiots with big mouths and no brains who believed a rich stockbroker and a load of privaliged etonions who said brexit is great for the common man/woman. The only thing you get is a lot of problems and when they do eventually calm down you’ll be no better off in life. You’ll still all be moaning about something, or more likely everything and still be ruled over by exactly the same privaliged few. But you got your country back, in a right mess with everyone hating each other but at least I’m out of the place and don’t have to deal with these donuts now.
And there you have it. The
And there you have it. The Remainer way. Everyone who voted leave are idiots. Not like the very clever people who voted to remain shackled to the undemocratic corrupt EU.
Footnote: If the vote had been to remain, would the Leavers have thrown their toys out of the pram and gone on, and on? No, they would have just accepted it. Tell me, if tthe vote had been 48% leave, 52% remain, would you have been happy for leavers to campaign for another vote?
No? Thought not.
biker phil wrote:
Best joke I’ve heard all year!
If Remain had won we might not have seen a ‘storming the Capitol building’ level of physical aggression but no doubt there would have been repercussions. Nigel said that if Remain won and it was a close thing then the Leave.EU campaign would not let it lie; and since we had already seen widespread skullduggery and dishonesty on their part then I’m sure it would not have been “a clean, fair fight”.
But I don’t subscribe to the PoV that Leave voters or those who 4 years later still think Brexit is a good thing are stupid, ill-informed or plain wrong. I think it’s far too early and far too complex to even consider whether either side of this simple binary referendum could be right or wrong. I don’t have any strong personal views, ties or investment either way. If Brexit works out well for the UK population in general then it will be a huge relief though I don’t see the elevated racism and vitriol disappearing and I don’t think the underlying structural problems will be dealt with. There are surely going to be some gains and I sincerely hope they outweight the losses. But so far we’ve had very little indication of those benefits becoming reality and lots of evidence of drawbacks.
The Leave campaign’s methods, combined with the personal attributes of some of its most prominent champions and its likely beneficiaries as a bunch of sketchy racists and shady moneygrabbers has contributed massively to why so many people feel so strongly about it and are extremely concerned about it. Many on the pro-Brexit side don’t want to acknowledge any of that, which leaves it as something of ‘a festering wound’, one could say.
I have no side. I just see
I have no side. I just see the pointless stupidity in creating a massive mess for no real gain. Please please tell me exactly how your life will now be so much better? I’ve only ever got one honest answer from a friend who voted leave and that was purely because he wanted some real creosote. He is still not sure weather he will get it though.
But I still think anyone who claims things will be so much better when they are even now still unsure how it’s going to work out is an idiot (or a fortune teller/soothsayer/clairvoyant). You can hope it works out better but thats about it. For my family still in england I hope it does.
More powerful vacuum cleaners
More powerful vacuum cleaners…?
I actually saw a vacuum
I actually saw a vacuum cleaner expert talking about this and he said the design is far more important than the power. I clean for my mother in law and when her old one packed up she bought a new supposedly high powered one and it’s rubbish TBH. It all depends weather you have a hard floor or carpet and weather you own hairy animals. Different hoovers work better in different situations. I completely agree with what the expert said. And don’t get me started on dusters…….
Also, will more powerful hoovers be allowed now? And will they be shipped to this part of the world if the rest of europe dont use them? I havn’t a clue on that.
Can’t wait for my first trip
Can’t wait for my first trip to a race abroad, taking a team car, with several high value bikes, all the equipment…I’ve already been told by a friend who works the port, have copies of all receipts, inventory list for everything in the car/van that someone can sign, which can then be checked on return to prove that you aren’t shipping new bikes around to avoid customs.
I have to go through a similar process when taking all my tool kit and equipment into certain countries like Canada and America, where I sign a declaration to say that I am here for a set amount of time, with the tools I have to work with and will be taking them home with me, none will be left, sold or given away.
Then if you go with a junior team as I have a number of times, anyone under the age of 18 is required to have a parental letter stating they are with you for the purpose of sport…etc etc etc. Funny, these were only ever checked on returning, never on outboard ferries…
You’re assuming that you will
You’re assuming that you will be able to make it on to boat and out of the country in the first place ?
Add PEdALED to that list too
Add PEdALED to that list too as their stuff gets shipped from Italy if you buy direct.
PEdALED who were owned by
PEdALED who were owned by Brooks of England, who became part of Selle Royal,that PEdALED you mean ?
If its economically in their interest to sell their stuff to the UK,they’ll find a way, just like they find a way to ship globally without constant inches of news columns devoted to it.
As a small business owner –
As a small business owner – its a real problem.
Thank you to everyone who voted for this sh!t show – you were at pains to tell us you knew EXACTLY what you were voting for…
The VAT arrangements are a
The VAT arrangements are a separate matter to Brexit and long overdue.
It’s hardly a surprise that there’s a small amount of disruption within the first week of the new VAT arrangements.
But feel free to trot out all your Brexit clichés, will be great to hear them again.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amazon-prices-rise-as-chinese-sellers-vat-loophole-is-closed-j9wnplf0b
This is a very good read
This is a very good read (twitter thread) by FT journalist Peter Foster.
https://twitter.com/pmdfoster/status/1347244528592433153
The reality is that Brexit is a disaster for many UK companies trading with the UK. It is not about cliches, just fact that EU trade is now more difficult and expensive.
We can however now sell a bit more cheese in Japan……
That seems a pretty biased
That seems a pretty biased source but there are some good points nonetheless. The conclusion that the UK will fall behind the EU economically seems directly at odds with the recent forecast from the Centre for Economics and Business Research which predicts the UK pulling ahead of the EU over the next few decades.
Sacrificing some trade with the EU for greater trade with the rest of the world seems perfectly reasonable given growth trajectories and our own balances of trade.
Now that the EU deal has been finalised we can pursue trade deals worldwide increasing our opportunities for growth further.
Pretty much the conclusion of
Pretty much the conclusion of every analysis of Brexit is that it will have a negtive impact on UK GDP.
Institute for Fiscal Studies is typical, about a 2% reduction in GDP.
https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/15079
For sure you can find a few right wing think tanks who paint lovely rosey pictures of trade with the rest of the world (which we mostly could do anyway in the EU).
Most of our trade deals signed so far are just roll overs of existing EU arrangements. (Except a bit more cheese to Japan….). Also we cannot diverge too much from EU regulations without risking tariffs, so Brexit is truly a lose-lose for everyone involved.
Let’s wait and see.
Let’s wait and see.
Trade deals signed so far are by necessity only minor tweaks of existing deals.
We now have the freedom to be far more ambitious in our trade negotiations and tailor those negotiations far more specifically to the needs of the UK.
That sounds great.
That sounds great.
Give me an example of an ambitious trade arrangment you would like to see?
CPTPP has a lot of potential
CPTPP has a lot of potential for the UK.
I’d like to see a trade deal with the US too but obviously there are some thorny issues there with food standards/agriculture.
The EU already has trade
The EU already has trade agreements with CPTPP member states.
So the reality is although we might “join” the CPTPP it is unlikely to offer any substantial benefits over existing trading relationships. Some tweaks at the edges.
You are correct that a big stumbling block in deals with Mexico/NZ/USA will be over agriculture. Any deal is likely to severly impact the UK farm sector.
No doubt the UK will bend over backwards to join CPTPP, if only to help justify its leaving of the EU.
Only the other day Boris Johnson asked business leaders what changes they would like to see regarding regulation. Even after 5 years Boris and co. have no idea what tangible benefits Brexit can bring.
The EU does not have trade
The EU does not have trade deals with all CPTPP countries.
If the EU can negotiate satisfactory deals with Mexico, NZ and Australia (last 2 still in progress) then why can’t the UK?
The fact that he can ask business what regulation changes they would like is progress. An advantage of having far more control over said regulations.
Likelyhood is the EU trade
Likelyhood is the EU trade deals will be largely the same as what the UK will get. Unlikely there will be any significant divergance. e.g. Japan deal UK can sell a bit more cheese there.
So trade deals outside of the EU offer little scope for improvement and any significant divergance will run into problems with the EU Level Playing Field arrangements. Any big changes in food (e.g. NZ Lamb) will be unpopular so unlikely to happen.
As the majority of economists have said, the net loss to the UK is about 2% on GDP. Tweaking trade deals with very small trading partners such as Mexico will not make up for losses with EU trade.
The fact that Boris and co. have to ask, after 5 years of promoting the “benefits” is beyond belief. They literally have no idea what to do now that Brexit is completed, other than jingoistic flag waving.
I think the UK is currently
I think the UK is currently far more committed to free trade than the EU.
As a consequence I believe the trade deals we strike will be far more wide reaching and therefore far more beneficial.
The Japan deal was done quickly to ensure it was ready by the end of transition. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it deepened considerably.
Trade deals with other countries should not affect our trade deal with the EU under level playing field clauses as we will have to declare country of origin on exports to EU for tariff purposes anyway.
A lot of bad losers here,
A lot of bad losers here, still not over Brexit, which was a long, long time ago, poor diddums.
…it affects some people
…it affects some people more than others, and some disproportionately. You must undertand that?
The referendum was a long
The referendum was a long time ago and in all these years you still haven’t understood that it wasn’t a football match.
The head office of the
The head office of the company I used to work for has moved to Bruges. I say “used to work for” as I have been made redundant as a direct consequence of Brexit. I no longer have a job and a prospective future trade deal isn’t going to feed my kids. This isn’t a win for you, me or the UK.
I don’t particularly want to
I don’t particularly want to ‘like’ this post, given the nature of your situation, but I do want to thank you for sharing it. Often we’re too caught up in hypotheticals and overlook actual people,
Rich_cb wrote:
hmm I’m not sure the CEBR is entirely unbiased when it comes to brexit forecasting: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexiteers-favoured-economic-study-shot-down-other-trade-economists-a7519596.html
Rich_cb wrote:
It’s good to see someone who’s not involved in international trade/travel, inward investment or cross-channel logistics (and not forgetting N.I. and Ireland) so optimistic about all those benefits we have been promised.
However, since EU countries are geographically nearest to our shores there is some difficulty believing that other more distant countries, with whom we don’t have such close ties, will be so eager replace them. And how can they do that for things like perishable food products?
Have we neglected that in the past? I don’t think so.
With a global pandemic affecting so many industries and countries it’s not easy to see where this magic money tree might be at the moment. But I genuinely admire your determined optimism, which we could all benefit from applying, to all aspects of our lives.
Is trade with the EU growing
Is trade with the EU growing as a share of our overall trade or falling?
Is the EU’s share of global GDP growing or falling?
Is that trend forecast to continue?
Do we run a trade surplus with the EU?
Do we run a trade surplus with the rest of the world?
Prior to Brexit the EU negotiated trade deals on our behalf so we were completely unable to negotiate UK specific trade deals.
We already ship perishable goods from Kenya, Peru and New Zealand to name but three I saw in Tesco’s today.
As an EU member the UK it had
As an EU member the UK it had good trade agreements with the majority of countries (the EU block gives it a very strong negotiating position, much stronger than the UK alone).
Yes the UK is now in a position to negotiate more bespoke deals but these are unlikely to compensate for loss of trade with the EU.
You are correct as well in that the main growth in the world is in countries such as India, Brazil, China, etc so as a world share the EU is getting less. But the EU is stil the UKs main trading area, and will remain so for many years yet.
Germany does almost double the trade with India that the UK does. So EU membership is not holding Germany back in trading with the rest of the world.
Germany is not necessarily
Germany is not necessarily representative of the whole EU. They benefit from an artificially weak currency so can trade more easily with almost anyone. The converse is true for most of Southern Europe.
The UK also does well in trade outside of the EU, this trade can be boosted by UK specific trade deals.
The UK is, even outside of the EU, a pretty big economy by international standards. 5th largest in the world. Tailoring trade deals to our own needs rather than the diverse needs of 27 other countries should make each trade deal far more beneficial to our economy than those negotiated by the EU.
Belgium has about the same
Belgium has about the same amount of trade with India as the UK does.
Not bad for a country a tenth of the size of the UK.
Again it is not membership of the EU that is holding our world trade back.
That sounds rather like it is
That sounds rather like it is being distorted by the port of Antwerp (one half of the Rotterdam-Antwerp effect)…here’s a reasonable summary:
https://www.economicsonline.co.uk/Global_economics/The_Rotterdam_effect.html
This is a common error.
You can’t say that
You can’t say that definitively as we have only just left the EU.
Once we’ve been out for a while then you can compare our trade growth with that of similar EU countries both before and after Brexit and draw some slightly more solid conclusions.
The majority of economic
The majority of economic analysis shows that leaving the EU hits the UK financially with the damage lasting for the next 10 years, probably longer.
It is happening now. Good thread here from a Japanese/UK business consultant. Japanese companies slowly shifting EU operations out of the UK and into the EU.
https://twitter.com/pernilleru/status/1347578900050808839
It is a very gradual drip, drip effect. Many foreign countries invested in the UK for easy market access to the EU single market.
My previous employer moved a large IT project from the UK to Germany for similar reasons. Project was part funded by EU grants so it could no longer be done in the UK. No UK government replacement so the work just went.
Over the past 6 years I have worked for a few international and UK technology firms. None of them saw any benefit to Brexit, only downsides.
Have those companies all
Have those companies all relocated since the deal was announced?
It looks like they left during the transition period which is entirely understandable. No company likes uncertainty.
Brexit was always going to cause a short term increase in uncertainty but that period of uncertainty is now over.
Let’s see how investment in the UK fares now that we have certainty.
Brexit is a long term change, to judge its success or failure after one week is a tad premature.
This is largely missing the
This is largely missing the point. Brexit was never about trade, otherwise we wouldn’t have left the world’s largest single market. Whether the EU is shrinking a bit as a share of the global economy is largely irrelevant when it makes up the majority of our international trade. You don’t swap clear and present benefits with your largest partner for possible benefits in the future with some small partners if more trade is your aim.
Of course it was about trade.
Of course it was about trade.
Arguments about the single market were about trade.
Arguments about the customs union were about trade.
You don’t think that adding a bit of paperwork and friction in one declining market is worth increased opportunities in multiple rapidly expanding markets?
I would disagree.
Trade with the EU is not going to power growth in the UK over the next half century, free trade with the rest of the world can.
Rich_cb wrote:
Using comparative terms like ‘declining’ and ‘expanding’ is a bit disingenuous without including the relative magnitudes.
e.g. I could set up a business (selling tasty treats made from acorns) and ‘sell’ some to a family member. The next day, I could maybe give some away to a YouTube influencer and they’d make a video about how my customer base has doubled in a day. That wouldn’t make investing in acorn snacks a necessarily wise choice based just on ‘rapidly expanding’.
I think that’s a bit unfair.
I think that’s a bit unfair.
Should I have listed the GDP, average growth rate etc for every non EU country, the EU itself, the Eurozone?
The EU is a very large market but its share of world GDP is declining rapidly and large parts of the EU are essentially stagnant in terms of GDP growth. Add in demographics and the EU is not a good bet for the medium term and beyond.
Rich_cb wrote:
Possibly. Using GDP is the easiest way to compare size of economies (and thus the approximate benefit of trade) whereas percentage growth is more commonly used for investments. Obviously, future trends should be taken into account, but doing lots of trade with a stagnant partner is still worthwhile compared to doing a bit of trade with a growing partner. I appreciate the benefit of getting a ‘foot in the door’ with growing economies, though.
I think ‘foot in the door’ is
I think ‘foot in the door’ is an appropriate phrase.
If we can establish better trading terms with multiple fast growing economies we can benefit from that rapid growth.
Our trade with the EU is likely to stagnate regardless of Brexit as the growth rates of those economies slow down (as is likely in advanced economies with ageing populations).
Sorry, to be more precise it
Sorry, to be more precise it was never about *improving* trade. You don’t win a race by shooting yourself in one foot and telling yourself you’ll be stronger for it in the long term.
What matters are the absolutes. We have added friction with over 50% of our trade. I hope I’m proved wrong, but I don’t believe there’s a hope in hell in making that lost trade up with marginal improvements in trade deals with the rest of the world (assuming we can manage that at all, which is far from given).
If we weren’t interested in
If we weren’t interested in improving trade terms then insisting on reopening the withdrawal agreement to ensure the ability to negotiate our own trade deals was a bit of a waste of time.
I think a better, and far more appropriate, analogy is that of a bike change in a TT.
When you first slow down, stop, dismount, remount and accelerate you lose a lot of time to an identical rider who does not change bikes.
If your bike change goes well and the different bike gives you a sufficient advantage you will find yourself making up that lost time and more.
Brexit may be slightly disadvantageous in the immediate term but if the advantages are as large as many believe they will be then in the long term we’ll be glad we changed.
I presume that these many
I presume that these many believers include a majority of economists? The OBR? The IMF? The OECD? The Bank of England?
I’m not sure how they could
I’m not sure how they could have analysed the effects of trade deals that have not even begun negotiations yet?
Let’s see how the trade negotiations pan out over the next few years. Then we can have an actual discussion rather than waste our time on speculation.
But your unnamed experts are
But your unnamed experts are allowed to believe there are large advantages?
You asked if a specific group
You asked if a specific group of organisations had produced opinions on things that had not happened yet.
We know that free trade deals with countries outside the EU will boost the UK economy. That’s what free trade deals do. It is therefore perfectly reasonable to believe that there are potential scenarios in which new free trade deals deliver significant advantages.
Until the deals are negotiated we will not know what degree of benefit there will be.
We also do not know exactly what impact our new trading arrangements with the EU will have.
We can speculate that the benefits of new trade arrangements will outweigh the impact on trade with the EU.
We can speculate that they will not.
We will be speculating in either case.
Your specualtion is no more valid than mine.
Yes, I’m asking for a
Yes, I’m asking for a specific group of organisations had produced opinions on things that had not happened yet. They’re called projections and they’re done all the time by serious economists and organisations such as the ones I listed.
They even have the foresight to do projections for a range of different scenarios, so that we can come up sensible policy decisions.
I’m not asking for *your* speculations, which are no more valid than mine.
And what specific projections
And what specific projections are you asking for?
Anything that backs up your
Anything that backs up your argument?
TBH, we should probably stop this now – I think we’ve both got better things to do and we aren’t going to put the world to rights in a comments section of a cycling forum 😛
I really don’t think there
I really don’t think there will be any specific projections for each and every possible trade permutation and I have not come across anything so detailed.
There is post referendum analysis showing the UK outgrowing the rest of the G7 and remaining a top tier economy through to 2050 based on expanding trade links with rapidly growing emerging markets.
It was produced before Covid hit though so not sure how applicable it remains but here it is anyway.
https://www.pwc.co.uk/who-we-are/regional-sites/northern-ireland/press-releases/world-in-2050.html
I agree that we’re unlikely to change each others minds about this so yes perhaps it is time to call it a day!
Rich_cb wrote:
I think a better analogy would be that it was a Team Time Trial and we have decided to move out of the team and try and beat our previous team mates alone. Whilst seriously disadvantaged, we’ll be frantically looking around for another team, or a group of individuals with little to no team structure, who will allow us to join them, and if we are allowed to join, hoping that we can perform better than our previous team. Hopefully we will still be on a TT bike and haven’t switched to, or been made to switch to, a BSO ?
Personally I try not to view life as a race or a competition, but I am an old almost hippy ?
Rich_cb wrote:
This is not untrue but is an attempt to sidestep the issue.
Can you confirm that those goods came direct from the country of origin? Or could they have been delivered via an EU country? (this is a quite likely)
IMHO it would be inadvisable to bury one’s head in the sand regarding the increasing complexity in transporting everything to and from this island via its nearest neighbours, who are often both our biggest customers and suppliers. And that applies to a huge proportion the products we want and need, not just fresh food.
I think it’s rolling the dice a bit to talk about global GDP and so on; regardless of predictions made by specialists, the average Joe or promises made by lying politicians, those were not the real reasons people voted to leave the EU.
On a personal level I’m just hoping that my Polish dentist, the permanent and locum GPs at my local practice and the hundreds of foreign nationals working at our hospital don’t leave the UK and go to work elsewhere. A former colleague who runs a large veg farm near here relies on overseas workers and is also anxious that they may struggle to get/retain decent staff to pick, sort and pack the root veg that is on offer in the supermarkets and elsewhere. I wonder who would plug those gaps?
Can you confirm they didn’t
Can you confirm they didn’t come directly here?
That is also quite likely.
Is it impossible to deliver goods directly to the UK?
I also hope that none of the valuable immigrants decide to leave, now that we no longer have to favour EU immigration it should actually be easier to attract the best people from anywhere in the world to fill vacancies we can’t fill with our own citizens.
Rich_cb wrote:
I don’t have to prove anything. The point is that you don’t know how they arrived here so it undermines your argument.
And according to the Guardian (is that another ‘biased source’ like the FT?), in normal times 6,000 to 9,000 HGVs cross the channel daily. That’s a hell of a lot of stuff. The story below is about the delays that are now holding up UK drivers in Calais. This costs money. Real money.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/jan/08/stuck-lorry-drivers-calais-effects-brexit-eurotunnel
I’m sure these things can be smoothed out in time (and they need to be!), just as I’m sure we can strike favourable trade deals now we’re out of the EU; but unfortunately these things don’t happen in 5 minutes. Nothing was done to prepare us for Brexit in the last 4½ years. I really do hope that we come out of this mess in a better position than we are now. It would be great if we were better off – and I don’t mean just the UK economy – than when we were in the EU. However, since Brexit has already cost the UK many billions of pounds (£130 billion, 12 months ago) and is still going to cost billions more, those benefits seem a very, very long way off right now.
And I find it saddening that too many pro-Leave commenters have no time to consider the extra stress, hugely increased workload or, even worse, those lose their jobs or businesses in the meantime. Instead there is this “suck it up, loser” gloating mentality. That’s really not a good look (which applies to all of us, whichever side of the argument – any argument – we are on). But so far we’re all potential losers, the only winners I can see are the fat cats and tycoons.
Edit: I’m now on the Graun’s Business section home and the headlines are “Firms halt deliveries from UK to EU over Brexit border problems”, “M&S Percy Pigs in Ireland hit by Brexit red tape” (they’re made in Germany for M&S BTW), “Brexit delays and costs ‘pushing Scottish seafood firms into crisis'” and “Brexit and Covid blamed as Asia-UK shipping rates increase fourfold”. I know it’s early days but this really does not suggest that we are heading for a big uptick in our economic fortunes.
You have a strange view of
You have a strange view of how discussions work.
This was what you originally said:
I merely pointed out that sourcing perishable items from distant countries is so routine that your average supermarket has myriad examples.
You then claimed I was sidestepping the issue and had to prove those items came straight here.
Clearly that was not required to disprove your point and even if the items were not shipped directly here, (which neither you nor I actually know) it’s not exactly hard to imagine that they could be if needed.
Your original point that sourcing perishable items from distant countries represents some sort of insurmountable challenge was shown to be false.
There will undoubtedly be people who are worse off due to Brexit just as there were undoubtedly many people who were worse off due to being in the EU.
The reality is that we held a democratic vote and decided to leave, now that we have actually left there is no alternative but to make the best if the situation.
Top trolling querying the
Top trolling querying the politics of an FT and former Telegrpah journalist and then citing a piece of work from the CEBR – an organisation which has found a niche in producing work that tries to muddy the waters on things like climate change, road safety and healthcare spending.
I’m unclear what point you’re
I’m unclear what point you’re trying to make?
We shouldn’t consider bias when we critique a conclusion? Or we should?
The head office of the
The head office of the company I used to work for has moved to Bruges. I say “used to work for” as I have been made redundant as a direct consequence of Brexit. I no longer have a job and a prospective future trade deal isn’t going to feed my kids. This isn’t a win for you, me or the UK.
Think you may have
Think you may have inadvertantly hit on a solution there. Our Cheese and whiskey and gin is a good psudo currency. We could swap things for bike components – surely this would avoid imports etc? Maybe Noel edmunds could lead the effort? A full campag groupset at £2k only equates to a mere 252 Kg of mature cheddar (@£7.91/kg), or 1170 Melton Mowbray pork pies.
TitanDave wrote:
That’s an emmental idea
hawkinspeter wrote:
Yep – I can see several holes in that plan right away.
mdavidford wrote:
I’ve just heard amongst all the U.S. news that Trump is about to ban imported shredded cheese.
He wants to Make America Grate Again
Whether you receive payment
Whether you receive payment in the form of money or by barter HMRC will still expect you to pay them in cash for the VAT that would have been due.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-part-exchanges-barters-and-set-offs
That particular attempt to reduce tax payable is almost as old as tax itself.
Rich_cb wrote:
Thanks for granting permission 😀
I’m sure we’ve all got plenty more to use!
Tell me the bus one again.
Tell me the bus one again.
That’s still my favourite even though I’ve heard it at least 350 million times.
If this is NOT a problem for
If this is NOT a problem for EU companies trading with other countries around the world, and it appears that it isn’t, then it is not a Brexit problem. The UK just needs to look at some of those countries and choose a solution.
This is a rather frustrating
This is a rather frustrating article on several counts:
1. How much is the annual fee to HMRC for VAT registration? If this is a huge sum it would explain why smaller retailers have decided to stop exports to the UK. But if it’s a small sum or even pro rata’d it’s harder to see it acting as a real barrier – not least because HMRC VAT and VAT scheme fee payments can be automated very easily.
2. Of the examples given, the owner of Dutch Bike Bits has reportedly been a long standing critic of brexit and very active politically – and should be acknowledged as such. Indeed the BBC have been criticised in their reporting for failing to disclose this in the interests of balance in their own reporting.
3. The example of Brooks is A-typical in that their ecommerce is run from central europe for products made in the UK. The root cause of the problem isn’t VAT or customs duty – it’s that the transport the product 1,000 miles from the UK and then back to the UK to customers. That’s just daft when they could ship to UK customers directly and avoid assoicated carbon emissions.
Anyway, I ordered some stuff from Germany two days ago. The total order was c£180 and it’s being delivered by DHL on Monday – I paid VAT at 19%. Which just goes to show the sky hasn’t fallen in yet and in other sectors companies have already worked through the new admin requirements (whether real or imaginary) and are quite happy to continue selling to customers here.
Add Rose cycles to that list.
Add Rose cycles to that list. They too will not deal with customers from the UK.
Slow clap Brexiteers.
I have to say I am far more
I have to say I am far more concerned about the UK’s access to Covid vaccines right now rather than some obscure supplier of minor cycle parts. It’s been hugely advantageous for the UK to be out of the EU’s collective purchasing and medically-approving scheme __ which frankly has been a joke.
The French vetoed a large order for the Pfizer vaccine because they wanted a good chunk of the money spent on their own Sanofi vaccine (which looks a very long way from approval if it ever happens).
Dutch Bike Bits and other such small suppliers simply need to use a UK distributor (as happens now from suppliers all over the world) if they want to avoid collecting VAT at the point of sale. The distributor will do it in the UK for them.
The fuss the UK government
The fuss the UK government made about being able to approve vaccines faster because of Brexit was all made up though – in the transition period we still had the same legal basis as when in the EU, and that had never prevented early approval.
It would be rather easier to welcome the sunlit uplands if we could rely on being told the truth about the sun, the light and the land.
Telling the truth has never
Telling the truth has never been one of Johnson’s strong points…
TheBillder wrote:
Utter bollocks. The UK drug approval agency is our own MHRA. The EU’s agency is the EMA, originally based in London but moved, in a fit of post-Brexit pique, to Amsterdam about 18 months ago. As a result the EMA is massively under-staffed and also chronically under-funded … and on which 450M people are relying upon for their vaccine approvals.
The UK has now approved 3 vaccines from all over the world and has also secured 370M purchase options of said vaccines for 68M people. The EU has only approved 1 vaccine and has barely 300M purchase options … for 450M people! The UK has to date provided over 1.3M vaccinations, more than double that of all the 27EU nations put together so far.
Welcome to the ‘sunny uplands’ of post-Brexit Britain. I hate to say “I told you so” … but we did … many, many times over.
The EU vaccine shambles has turned out to be the perfect example of how a fleet-footed and fast-acting independent UK is overtly superior to the slow-acting and squabbling EU.
Next slide please.
https://fullfact.org/health
https://fullfact.org/health/coronavirus-vaccine-brexit/
Indicates that ministers did lie about whether Brexit does up the process. Each EU nation was free to do the same, even though “shackled as a vassal state”. Germany decided to do more work before approving: https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-britain-spahn/germany-says-it-chose-longer-approval-process-of-covid-vaccines-than-uk-to-boost-trust-idUSB5N2B301E
If the EMA was soley responsible for approval across the EU, how come we had the MHRA in place at all? And just why would you want “unelected Eurocrats” cluttering up your uplands after Brexit? Why on earth would they not relocate an office that no longer meant anything to the UK? Would it matter to you if we just left a regulatory body of ours in Brussels post-Brexit?
I think you’ll find that my point was about lies and obfuscation from the UK government on approval, so procurement is not really relevant.
And in case you don’t believe
And in case you don’t believe fullfact, here’s Kate Bingham, the person who was in charge of the whole shebang for the UK, saying explicitly that being in or out of the EU was irrelevant.
Interesting article. I live
Interesting article. I live in Europe and buy from UK based companies. Just priced a set of Hunt Wheels at circa 1000pounds, and I have to pay 304pounds import duty plus delivery is that correct.
It shouldn’t be according to
It shouldn’t be according to Hunt Wheels own website. It took me all of two minutes to find out;
“European Union
All payments on eu.huntbikewheels.com are collected in Euros. We are based in the UK and even though the UK is no longer part of the European Union, we will cover all duty and taxes for orders sent to the EU.”
Here’s the link if you can’t find it for yourself;
https://help.huntbikewheels.com/support/solutions/articles/43000456067-taxes-and-import-duties
FFS you could get some Boras
FFS you could get some Boras for that…
Ooh dear … naughty Germany
Ooh dear … naughty Germany breaks EU collective agreements to secure 30M extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine for itself … and just two hours after Ursula VDL insisted that individual countries cannot sign separate deals;
https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-coronavirus-vaccine-side-deal-at-odds-with-legally-binding-eu-pact/
For me, that’s a double-edged
For me, that’s a double-edged sword. I always felt it was a bit odd for our Eurosceptic politicians saying ‘we can’t do this ‘cos of EU rules’ when France and Germany were just quietly ignoring said rules without any real consequences. Surely it would be better to quietly get on with X if you really want to do X rather than loudly trumpeting on about how you’d like to do X but can’t.
Ah! Who cares! The UK has
Ah! Who cares! The UK has taken back control – that’s what counts! And look how brilliantly they’re coping with the covid pandemic, too! One more reason to celebrate! Rule Britannia!
“Now the transition period is
“Now the transition period is over, we’re starting to see the impact of leaving the EU”
Careful, Road.cc, you’re beginning to sound like the BBC.
biker phil wrote:
How awful to sound like the British Broadcasting Corporation! Of course road.cc should sound some illiterate git in order to be truly respectable.
‘Of course road.cc should
‘Of course road.cc should sound some illiterate git in order to be truly respectable…..’
In the interests of literacy may I suggest that you insert ‘like’ in that sentence between sound and some, as you’re trying to make a comparison.
In the interests of decency it would make for a more constructive discussion if you could make your point without descending into abuse, safe behind your ‘nom de guerre.’
Just to check is this still
Just to check is this still road.cc or vaccine.cc? A lot of people are talking about eu vaccine approval but I thought the article was about bike parts…