UK politicos appear largely oblivious to the fact that in modern economies, it is non-tariff barriers (NTBs) that are the most significant impediment to international trade. Most seem unaware that such barriers even exist, never mind their importance, and think simply in terms of C19/C20 style tariffs, hence the shape of the TCA agreement reached and the issues now faced and to be faced by UK outfits. Tragic for those at the pointy end, not least because, viewed at the “nation level” at least, it is entirely self-inflicted.
I’ll leave it there as I’m not here to discuss politics.
You seem to know a lot more than me about the details - what’s your view on how much of the current issues are:
short term e.g. Everybody still adapting forms, processes, systems to the new reality
medium term e.g. Details that weren’t adequately considered in the last minute rush to sign off the Brexit agreement but for which there is still sufficient wriggle room to tweak and refine
long term e.g. Stuff that is set in the Brexit agreement and would be extremely hard to change now. And/or where it’s a point of principle for one or both of UK and EU and there is no desire to change it.
Can be extremely difficult to get an objective view on some of this stuff as a layman, often seems almost all commentary/analysis is strongly influenced towards the Remain or Leave side of things. I lived in Geneva for a few years, so know it is possible to be outside the EU and still have relatively smooth trade and borders with it. At times you almost forgot there was a border - still remember going for a bike ride and realising I’d somehow crossed into france without realising and didn’t have my passport with me. Just unclear how much of that was because they’d operated like that for years vs they had much deeper and more comprehensive agreements in place than UK currently does.
Yep. As much as I am pro-international trade and anti-patriotism, I’m looking to buy British for a year or two until the trade situation sorts itself out.
I’m sure some Brexiteers will see this as a good thing, but they don’t understand the net loss of this kind of mercantilism.
Some of it is short term, eg shops temporarily not selling to to/from the UK, until they have implemented the new regulations. Some of it is mid term, mostly companies deciding whether its worth dealing with all the additional hassle or whether they should relocate or at least get another base. But most of it is “set” - unless another agreement is negotiated, nothing will change.
Some is even still to come, because the EU has suspended some things for 6 months to get the paperwork sorted.
The relationship between Switzerland and EU is quite different compared to UK post Brexit.
They are part of EFTA (aka customs union), Schengen, free movement of people (partly limited) and contribute to the EU budget around 2 billion euro.
So a lot of things which were dailed back / removed as part of Brexit.
P2M do remove the German VAT from their price when delivering to the UK.
It’s all automated and works nicely.
I just bought. NGeco SRAM Boost PM, arrived 4 days after ordering and I had to pay £108 which was about £2 more than I thought it should be, but that was due to the exchange rate used by HMRC. The £108 was made up of UK VAT @ 20% and a carrier processing charge.
No additional tariff as the rules of origin are Germany.
It only gets complicated when you’re importing items where the rules of origin are non-EU and then you have to pay import duties/tariff depending on the product type, so need to know the HS Code, and these aren’t obvious.
I’m currently in the process of importing some bikepacking gear from the US and the EU and I think I’ll be paying a 12% tariff, on top of the UK VAT, but hard to be sure. Note, most bike components are 4% if the rules of origin are outside the EU.
