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Message: [QUOTE="Munyaradzi Mafaro, post: 80038, member: 636"] Right, the post-Brexit trade glow-up is apparently not happening. New polling from the British Chambers of Commerce shows that over half of UK companies, we're talking 54 percent, can't grow their sales in Europe. This is getting worse, not better, with that number jumping up 13 points from just last year. Their big take is that the main EU-UK trade deal, the TCA, is basically a dud for most exporters. Nearly all the nearly one thousand firms asked were small or mid-sized outfits. The Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, is pushing for a reset with Brussels, but businesses are saying it's moving at a snail's pace. The specific headaches are a real buffet of bureaucratic misery. Companies keep complaining about customs paperwork nightmares, VAT rules that make no sense, and not being able to move staff around easily. For anyone selling food, drinks, or farm goods, the sanitary checks are a massive wall of red tape and delays. The BCC is telling the government to get its act together next year, aiming for simpler customs, better VAT coordination, and a real agreement on those food safety checks. They're also side-eyeing a loophole that lets foreign online stores ship cheap goods into the UK tax-free, a gap the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, won't close until 2029, which high street retailers absolutely hate. A guy from the BCC, Steve Lynch, basically said the friction is getting worse and the government's recent budget did nothing to help. He called the EU reset a must-do, not some optional political project. While there's some chatter about overall business confidence ticking up a bit, exporters say that means nothing if they still hit a wall trying to sell into Europe. The government claims it's making strong progress on a food and drink deal and linking carbon trading schemes, which they say could be worth billions way down the line. But for the companies on the ground, the message is clear: without real, tangible cuts to the trade barriers, the European market will stay frustratingly out of reach. [/QUOTE]

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