Brexit s unsustainable burdens for cross-border packaging trade
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Point of sale display specialist Horizon Retail Marketing Solutions (headquartered in Cambridge, UK) views registering a new company in the Netherlands as the only means to minimise the problems created by the UKâs âHard Brexitâ deal with the European Union.
The business was initially relieved at the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and the UK, signed on 24
th December, which represented a last-minute reprieve from the worst case scenario of levying tariffs on exports. However, the realities of life outside the EU soon proved to be harsh.
âWe returned to work on 4
Requirements for EU transport firms to provide VAT and tariff guarantees have left hauliers refusing contracts to carry loads for small- and medium-sized UK businesses. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
British businesses that export to the continent are being encouraged by government trade advisers to set up separate companies inside the EU in order to get around extra charges, paperwork and taxes resulting from Brexit, the
Observer can reveal.
In an extraordinary twist to the Brexit saga, UK small businesses are being told by advisers working for the Department for International Trade (DIT) that the best way to circumvent border issues and VAT problems that have been piling up since 1 January is to register new firms within the EU single market, from where they can distribute their goods far more freely.