A high proportion of British businesses are having problems using the post-Brexit Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) to trade with the EU according to a new survey.
The research was carried out by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), which has responded to the data with a set of 24 proposals that it has put forward to the Government.
Agreed in December 2020, the TCA was designed to support tariff-free trade with the EU, post-Brexit.
It sets out preferential arrangements in areas such as trade in goods and in services, digital trade, intellectual property, public procurement, aviation and road transport, energy, fisheries, social security coordination, law enforcement and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, thematic cooperation and participation in EU programmes.
However, the survey questioned more than 1,168 businesses (92 per cent of them SMEs), and found:
- More than three quarters say the agreement is an obstacle to sales and growth
- Adapting to the new rules for trading services is cited as a problem by 45 per cent
- Obtaining visas for staff is another problem, with 44 per cent of businesses affected
- Shortages of goods and services have affected 70 per cent of those surveyed
In response to the survey, the BCC main proposals to overcome the TCA issues include:
- The creation of a Norway-style deal that exempts smaller firms from having a fiscal representative for VAT in the EU
- Extending the use of CE-marked goods in the UK beyond 2024
- A deal to allow UK firms and their staff to travel for longer and work in Europe
- A compromise which helps eliminate or reduce the complexity of exporting food
Shevaun Haviland, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Businesses want political leaders on both sides to move on from the debates of the past and find ways to trade more freely.
“This means an honest dialogue about how we can improve our trading relationship with the EU. With a recession looming we must remove the shackles holding back our exporters so they can play their part in the UK’s economic recovery.”
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