The trade figures for the UK for January 2021 have been published showing the first impacts of the UK leaving the EU on both imports and exports.
The drastic fall in trade with the EU follows 2 months, November and December, when there was increased movement of goods – possibly as the result of stockpiling in expectation of problems with trade following departure from the EU.
For the UK as a whole “Falling imports of goods were largely seen in machinery and transport equipment, and chemicals”
For Scotland, which had voted strongly (62%) to Remain in the EU of most concern is the fall in exports of food and live animals to the world’s largest free trading market.
The Scottish Seafood Association says exports to the EU are being hit by “red tape” delays between Scotland and France. The consignment sign off is reportedly taking six times longer, and previously overnight transit of goods to France is reportedly now taking three days. ONS January 2021
A statement was issued by Seafood Scotland the national trade and marketing body for the Scottish Seafood Industry.
The increase in paperwork that is required now to export adds time and therefore costs to products. At the same time as this is happening to Scotland’s exports, the EU is able to flood the internal UK market with their goods.
Fishing is a very small sector in the UK economy but for Scotland with its extensive waters teeming in fish and its shellfish industry vital to so many island and coastal communities, these trade results are disastrous.
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Add in this UK Government’s incompetence over the Covid crisis, their handing out of overpriced contracts to their chosen companies who then make a huge mess of delivering effective PPE to our hard press health workers, the derisory pay rise offer to health staff, the power grab taking back powers from devolved governments who are closer to their market producers, exporters etc, know their needs much better and respond to those needs much more effectively than Westminster Government and you wonder why they have a shred of credibility left.
Just think where we could have been with the vaccine roll out if we had been free of Westminster and a valued member of the EU.
It doesn’t bare thinking about!
The jury is still out whether the UK’s vaccine roll-out will be the success everbody expects and hopes for. Perhaps you also want to consider the different kind of permission for vaccine use which has been granted. UK approval was quick, of a different kind and with significant relief in terms of liabilities for manufacturers, the latter – in a limited form – carried by the government. To compare apples and pears is always problematic.
Also, the UK was forced to act, much more than EU countries who fared far better initially. That they are now in such a predicament and under pressure in the EU with second and third waves, has mainly to do with the new variants, lockdown shortcomings etc…. and time will tell how successful the UK vaccination campaign was or is… once restrictions will be eased and once people inevitably start to move around we will find out… one way or the other.