Trade with Great Britain is weakening

Tobias Ahrens would have wanted more time. A few more weeks to understand what is really in the agreement between Europe and the UK. Ahrens runs a branch of Brian James Trailers in Saxony, Grospasna. The company makes car trailers for a variety of purposes. But Ahrenz says trade has been complicated by the British exit from the EU. Finally, the trade agreement was not finalized until December 24, which began a week later. “Of course, the industry was given very little time to prepare and bring about staff changes. Over the past few months you have noticed more and more that the processes are not entirely clear and that there are a lot of unanswered questions.”

Others feel the same way as Ahrens. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry (IHK) has been increasingly investigating businesses in Leipzig, Great Britain, since the beginning of this year. IHK President Christian Kirpal is pleased with the agreement with the British to block tariffs, but exporters and importers are still required to adhere to the tariffs. There are no longer general product terms that meet the needs of the target market. There are also import and export restrictions for certain items. Another important issue is that trade relations between companies are no longer exempt from sales tax.

The bureaucracy has grown again, Kirpal complains. This was criticized by Oliver Holdemuller of the Leibniz Institute of Economic Research in Hall. For simple wholesalers, the effort involved in the UK trade is manageable, he says. This becomes difficult with special products: “There are estimates for individual groups of products, which means that the same amount of administrative costs are added to the price of regular products.”