EU leaders are meeting at a summit today to discuss a controversial proposal that would allow it to block vaccine exports from companies that haven't met their commitments to the bloc 2/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
There was a slight easing of diplomatic tensions with the UK earlier in the week, but discussions are ongoing on supplies and we wait for a resolution (it's a bit like the Brexit negotiations all over again...) 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Away from vaccines, the mood music is increasingly positive about partial regulatory equivalence for some parts of financial services, which would give the City of London some access to the bloc's single market 4/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
But on trade, the effects of new Brexit red tape are increasingly apparent. U.K. exports of products like salmon, beef and whisky plunged in January, an effect the Food and Drink Federation largely ascribe to Brexit 5/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Meanwhile one of Britain's most influential business groups said Brexit is doing structural damage to many U.K. firms 6/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
And LinkedIn tells us that more of its members left the U.K. for the European Union than arrived over the past year 7/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Marshall says the disruption to trade and companies is not just about `adjustment'. These are permanent effects which, in some cases, pose an existential threat to business models 2/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Of the 40% decline in exports to the EU in January, he says a ``large chunk'' of that is Brexit related 3/
New: as U.K. exports to the EU fell 40% in January, British firms are angry that they're drowning in red tape -- while imports from the bloc are being waved in to Britain 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Steve Howell's Foodlynx sends British bacon and sausages to the EU. He's seen weeks-long delays to shipments and paid £thousands in extra customs fees since Brexit. He's outraged the government is postponing import checks on EU goods... 2/
`My reaction is absolute dismay,' Howell said. `I can’t believe they could be so stupid to kill U.K. exports, but allow free rein into our country from the EU' 3/
New: the government is considering delaying Brexit import checks, due to supply chain fears 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In short, the govt is worried about the impact of the next wave of Brexit red tape coinciding with lockdown lifting and pubs and restaurants re-opening 2/
The new requirements include export health certificates on food coming from the EU (are there enough vets to issue them? are companies ready?) and full import declarations for all goods from July 1 3/
Exclusive: the government was about to publish a plan for monitoring and evaluating free-trade deals in December. Then it signed the Brexit deal, and the plan was shelved 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In an internal email seen by Bloomberg, the Department for International Trade was due to publish this document - Free Trade Agreements: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - in the w/c Dec. 14, just before the Brexit deal was concluded on Christmas Eve 2/
It commits the government to detailed scrutiny of new FTAs it signs -- biennial monitoring reports, and a full evaluation report within five years 3/
This is a pretty stunning paragraph in the EU's letter to Michael Gove. It effectively claims the U.K. is not enforcing the Northern Ireland Protocol 1/
And the UK request to extend grace periods for trade? It gets a hard knockback. Essentially EU says: this is what you signed up to, so do it 2/
Big question for the UK now - what does it do? Johnson has threatened activate Article 16 of the protocol - which allows you to suspend parts of it - if the trade issues weren't resolved. But will he actually follow through... 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
New: Just as Britain's pubs and restaurants expect a post-lockdown boom, a new Brexit problem threatens to spoil the party... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
From April and July, the U.K. will impose new import controls on food and drink coming from the EU -- which makes up about 30% of Britain's food supply. (Up until now, the government has been waving this stuff through the border) 2/
The timing of these new checks -- extra paperwork, border control posts -- coinciding with a likely surge in demand for eating out etc, has executives very worried. `It's going to be like a Big Bang, a peak season of all peak seasons,' said Peter Ward of @UKWarehouse 3/