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It was said that 80 percent of businesses on the the Continent hadn’t got to grips with the new paperwork required to make shipments to the UK. And one European fashion firm has around £1 million worth of stock stranded in a British warehouse while their suppliers deal with the new bureaucracy. This has led to small and medium-sized businesses either decide to stop selling to UK consumers or hike their prices.
Haider Abdo, the chief executive of Returnado, a global returns management company, told Express.co.uk: “EU-based retailers will have a harder time competing with UK ones since EU businesses will likely deliver slower and there will be more friction when both purchasing from abroad and returning items there.
“With these extra friction points, prices will likely need to increase there as well, making them less competitive against UK-based merchants.”
He added: “We spoke to one Swedish company who generate labels for shipping, who said 80 per ent of their EU businesses hadn’t yet filled out the forms and details in order to meet the new requirements, which accounts for several 100,000s of retailer shipments to the UK every month.
“This is because many of the new rules came in over Christmas which caught them by surprise as they were focussed on sales.”
Manchester United football star Victor Lindelof’s wife has been caught up in the chaos.
Swedish Maja Nilsson Lindelof told social media followers that she had quit her job because of this “f****** Brexit thing”.
The WAG revealed she was just one of those forced to fork out for unexpected customs charges.
British customers are facing demands to pay up to a third extra to release their goods from warehouses once they arrive in the UK.
If goods cost more than £135 they are susceptible to VAT payments that must be collected at the point of delivery because the retailer should levy the tax.
Ms Nilsson Lindelof claimed she had sold a suit for a Swedish firm that was slapped with a £124.50 charge.
Mr Abdo said: “Any EU business who sells items here has to be VAT registered in the UK if they sell over £134 worth of items* per year. That’s a big hurdle which obviously affects almost every business.”
And the businessman explained he had many firms that have struggled to come to terms with the new cross-Channel trading realities after Brexit.
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DHL charges 2.5 percent of the liable VAT and duty with a minimum fee of £11, where as Royal Mail charges £8.
And these new fees are even being charged if there is no duty or VAT because of the extra red tape.
UPS charges £5 per shipment and DHL Express is asking an extra 25 percent per kilogram, with a minimum extra of £4.50 per shipment.
