The Brexit Agreement caused sensitive disruption in the movement of goods between Great Britain and the European Union at the last minute. At the moment, the first freight forwarders no longer accept shipments.

By lothar griz, tagesschau.de

Less than two weeks after Britain left the European Union, the consequences of this decision are increasingly becoming a burden for trade. The movement of goods between the island and mainland Europe is interrupted.

Some transport companies, such as German freight forwarder DB Schenker, will not accept any consignments for traffic between the island and the European Union following this notice. A company spokesman said, “We informed our customers last Wednesday that we are no longer accepting shipments for general cargo to Great Britain.” tagesschau.de

The required customs papers are usually missing.

The reason is that the required customs papers are missing in 90 percent of the cases and this means extra effort. The volume of transport has not reached the volume of the previous year. The spokesperson said that how long the blockage will last.

Parcel service DPD, a subsidiary of the French Post, had meanwhile suspended all transports between Great Britain and the European Union, as many shipments had to be returned to the sender due to incomplete or missing customs documents. “Due to new, complex procedures for customs investigations and additional, required shipment data, shipment processing was delayed in cross-border freight traffic in early January,” a spokeswoman said. tagesschau.de. The DPD UK therefore suspended shipping of goods to the EU on 7 January. The service is available again from last weekend.

The online giant Amazon has also responded to the problems and is as limited as possible from Great Britain to mainland Europe. Customers who still order items on the UK website are warned that duties, taxes and import duties could make the goods more expensive.

On the other hand, DHL Freight, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, is associated with freight traffic with Great Britain. A spokesperson said, “DHL freight is currently fully operational and we have no approval or loading stop.” tagesschau.de.

Every fifth truck is towed away

Ana Bota, senior economist at credit insurer Euler Hermes, is not surprised by the disruption in the movement of goods. The deal between Great Britain and the European Union is “far from complete” and brings a transition period for the British due to lack of preparation time. There are disruptions at the borders due to the current uncertainty, which is why many small companies have suspended trading at the moment. “Almost every fifth truck is diverted at a canal crossing, partly due to Brexit paperwork,” Boata said in a study.

In fact, despite the agreed duty-free imports into the European Union, certificates of origin and comprehensive invoice documents are required. Now there are also border controls which were not present before. Because neither the sender nor the recipient is currently familiar with all these constraints and requirements, there is a backlog of goods.

Fear of falling trading volume

It is said to the British government that these are temporary problems, after all, new rules will have to be implemented in the next few weeks and months. This should be of little consolation to the carrier of the bad cargo. Because Scottish seafood trade with the continent has come to a standstill practically, angry transport companies staged protests in central London on Monday.

According to a study by the London School of Economics, new trade barriers between the UK and the EU are likely to result in significantly lower levels of trade and loss of income. According to the prediction of Thomas Sampson, one of the authors of the “Bionx Brexit” study, “Brexit is likely to keep the United Kingdom poorer for longer if it remained a member of the European Union.” Ten years after Brexit, despite trade agreements, there will probably be one-third less British exports to EU countries, the economist predicts.

Sales loss up to 27 billion euros

Credit insurer Euler Hermes is also suspected. Brexit this year could result in a sales loss of between £ 12 billion and £ 25 billion (€ 13.5 billion to € 27 billion) to UK exporters. There is weak demand, growing bureaucracy and devaluation of the British pound. Exports of mineral and metal products, machines and electrical equipment, transport equipment, chemicals and textiles are particularly affected.