Insanity rules
The FT reports today that the govt has now acknowledged British companies will have to complete an extra 215 million customs declarations to continue to trade with Europe post-Brexit - at a cost of around £7 billion a year.The forms need to be filled out "regardless of whether the UK and the EU conclude a trade deal this year with the aim of removing all tariffs and quotas" - and would be mirrored by the same process by counterparties in the EU, resulting in some 430 million forms in total each year. The shadow Cabinet Office Minister, Rachel Reeves, is quoted as describing the extra bureaucracy as "staggering".How can leaving the customs union never mind the single market possibly make any sense at all, especially when our economy has already been hit disproportionately by the pandemic crisis?All this unnecessary expense, all this extra bureaucracy! Never mentioned in the referendum campaign of course. We are going to have to find extraordinary levels of benefit elsewhere to compensate. Any clues anybody? We already trade with about 200 countries around the world.
Jonathan Callaway ● 2309d61 Comments ● 2306d