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Truck clearance in Dover (archive): Health certificates and customs duties make exports difficult
Photo: Gareth Fuller / dpa
The English language has a winged word for the location on the British border: A gift that keeps on giving - an unloved gift that stays and stays.
Even around two and a half months after the final Brexit, British companies are still struggling with the new export rules.
There are still significant barriers to trade with the European Union, has now officially stated a report published by a House of Lords committee in London.
"The Brexit trade agreement concluded with the EU prevented the nightmare of a 'no deal' for Great Britain, but there are still many unfinished points between the two sides," said committee chairman Sandip Verma.
Small and medium-sized companies in particular felt the pressure.
Complicated VAT rules in the EU complained
The report warned that controls on animal and vegetable products in particular could become permanent problems.
Meat products and live shellfish are particularly badly affected.
Overall, trade in goods from Great Britain to the EU collapsed by almost 60 percent in January, as the statistics agency Eurostat recently calculated.
In contrast, EU exports to Great Britain fell by 27.4 percent compared to the same month last year.
Great Britain left the EU internal market and the customs union on January 1, 2021, completing Brexit.
Since then, UK exporters have to provide a health certificate for every animal and vegetable product for exports to the EU.
There are also customs duties.
Several industries are complaining of a significant slump in their export business.
"The trade and cooperation agreement should be seen as the beginning, not the end of the UK's new relationship with the EU," Verma said.
She demanded: "The government must pursue an ambitious approach to trade relations with the EU." According to the committee, "complicated and different VAT rules" are among the greatest challenges for companies in the EU.
The British statistical authority had recently presented the situation at least a little less dramatically than Eurostat - and put the slump in exports to the EU at 41 percent and that of imports at 29 percent.
The differences can be explained in the methodology: Because of the special Brexit regulation for Northern Ireland, Eurostat reports trade with the British province differently than with the rest of the United Kingdom.
apr / dpa