Post-Brexit Liverpool: A city full of regret or one set to thrive in ‘global Britain’? – Liverpool Echo

Britain has left the European Union, taking Remain-supporting cities like Liverpool with it. And after years of fierce debate, deliberation and negotiations, the dust appears to be settling at last.

Following modest support for Leave from the western-facing port city prior to the 2016 vote, an argument has since emerged that Liverpool will thrive post-Brexit simply due to its geography.

On a visit to Liverpool in February last year, Woody Johnson, the then-US ambassador to the UK, said so himself.

READ MORE: Man 'kicking himself' for not telling friend, 41, to get vaccine

With just months having passed since 'Brexit Day' on January 1, there have been widespread reports of lorry driver shortages, supermarkets running low on produce and hospitality firms struggling to find staff. Its important to note that the Covid pandemic has also been a factor in some or all of these issues.

So what impact has there been in Liverpool so far - a city region known for its hospitality, manufacturing and maritime sector, among others?

BusinessLive spoke to prominent business leaders to determine the early indications of the impact Brexit will have on Liverpool in the long term.

Is it a damaged port city - or one looking to prosper in a post-EU Britain after early signs of hope?

BusinessLive is your home for business news from around the North West- and you can stay in touch with all the latest news from Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria through our email alerts.

You can sign up to receive daily morning news bulletins from every region we cover and to weekly email bulletins covering key economic sectors from manufacturing to technology and enterprise. And we'll send out breaking news alerts for any stories we think you can't miss.

Visit our email preference centre to sign up to all the latest news from BusinessLive.

For all the latest stories, views, polls and more, follow our BusinessLive North West LinkedIn page here.

Elena Enciso, international trade manager at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, the voice of the citys businesses, said the post-Brexit period had so far caused confusion for many members - with the two biggest problems being additional costs and increased documentation.

Despite tariff-free trade agreed in the historic deal signed on Christmas Eve last year, British firms access to the EU market still faces significant barriers due to aspects such as non-tariff barrier costs.

Describing a nightmare of paperwork and many firms being overwhelmed, Ms Enciso said: It's not like just going to do trade with Japan or Australia is going to solve the problem.

"Continuing trading with Europe is still very important as for many companies, it is still their main trading partner.

"So customs declarations and papers are going to stay, and they incur additional costs.

Increased documentation is also a problem - particularly for the food sector - with health certificates, agricultural licences, catch certificates for those that export fish. Its a nightmare of paperwork and its overwhelming for many SMEs.

I would say we are learning by doing. These are still unchartered territories for many of the businesses.

The guidance is so overwhelming that to keep up to date, you need to be reading new regulations all the time and not everybody has the time to do that because they have a business to run.

Ms Enciso said it was difficult to determine the impact of Brexit on businesses due to its combination with Covid - with the pandemic accelerating crisis for many.

But she said firms in the region had been forced to invest vital cash by opening new sites in the EU - or taking on extra staff with relevant skills and customs experience.

She said aside from the new UK Global Import Tariff, which makes imports cheaper and easier, and the fact it has given organisations like hers more relevance due to the extra guidance so many now need, determining any positive Brexit impacts for Liverpool is a struggle.

What everybody needs to understand is that we have left the most ambitious form of trade cooperation with Europe, which is the single market, she said.

Nothing is ever going to be as good as having a single market in 28 countries. We now have to navigate 27 VAT systems.

Liverpool businesses will get on with it, they are resilient, and they will find ways. But theyre accepting that the profits may diminish a little bit.

Some of them are so keen, they're absorbing the extra costs of their customers so they don't scare them.

They are finding a way to continue, but accepting that theres going to be a cost for it.

Paul Cherpeau, CEO of the chamber, said there was an element of regret from the Liverpool business community about leaving the EU.

He said: The economic benefits do not outweigh the economic costs of that decision.

That's not a political statement, it is simply a fact as it stands at the moment.

He said the chamber has launched a campaign with local authorities to focus on how businesses have adapted - and the extent to which they have had to invest in new ways of working, and how they intend to flourish internationally moving forward.

He added: There is a lot of bullishness as you would expect, and a lot of determination to get through this and prosper going forward.

I think we can look forward to a successful period in the medium to longer term.

"What we're dealing with now is a mix of adjusting costs but also systematic challenges that need addressing, and businesses don't have a huge amount of agency - lets face it.

If those elements can push together reasonably successfully, coupled with an expansion of businesses that are looking to trade overseas for the first time and don't have all the baggage of adjusting to the new circumstances, then we will be okay.

He said a new export strategy is currently being developed alongside the combined authority in a bid to create a clear strategic approach to what is a huge challenge.

He added: Our businesses are going to need substantial amounts of support, whether they are continuing to adapt to the environment they're trading in, or whether they are looking to develop those new market opportunities, either outside of the EU, or even one of those 27 countries that we now need to deal with.

Tom Houghton is the North West Business Editor for BusinessLive and Reach plc titles.

You can follow Tom on Twitter here, or contact him on Facebook.

Email him on tom.houghton@reachplc.com.

Keep up to date with the latest breaking news in the North West here.

Sign up to our fantastic daily email updates for the region here.

Follow @livechobusiness and @businesslive on Twitter

Mr Cherpeau said despite Liverpools geographical advantage, its not a case of assuming that the city will benefit just because its port faces west - and towards the USA.

He said: Ultimately, it's about the relationships that are built between businesses, that includes business development activity of those in local ports.

It's about thinking about business to business transactions and how they are developed.

So it's not just a simple flick of the switch, and businesses saying, we'll go from Liverpool as opposed to an Eastern-facing port.

So there is a geographical benefit, but there's a huge amount of work that has to go into building and maintaining relationships between businesses, across different geographies across different borders. We can't underplay that.

We need a substantial investment approach to make sure that relationships can be built, trust can be built, and those material tangible benefits geographically can also be met.

One part of the citys industry certainly seeing a post-Brexit rise in activity is port logistics. Thats been shown in recent weeks not least by Peel Ports Group - the owner of the Port of Liverpool - continuing to invest heavily in operations in the city.

Last week, its 400m Liverpool2 project continued at pace, welcoming four huge new cranes and an additional 15 acres of yard capacity as part of the schemes next phase.

Once completed, Peel Ports said Liverpool2 will provide global shipping companies reliable access to major import and export centres at the heart of the UK, to further increase capabilities and support increased demand.

For Chris Shirling-Rooke, CEO of Mersey Maritime, theres a lot of optimism that Brexit will boost a global Liverpool.

He said: You're seeing more shipping lines coming to Liverpool, a lot of new investment, because with Brexit, were only talking about Europe, but we have the whole rest of the world to go at.

You see all of these new free trade agreements being announced by the Government - well, the odds are that the ships are going to come to Liverpool. Theyre not going to go to east coast ports. They will come to Liverpool, which is one of the most modern in the world.

Maritime, by its very nature, looks outwards, we don't look inwards. We trade globally and Liverpool is a global port.

I think the Government has switched onto this for the first time in generations - we put 45bn a year in tax into the exchequer, for example.

He added: There's a huge focus on global trade, there's a huge focus on shipbuilding and there's a massive focus on decarbonisation.

These are all opportunities that we have in this region - shipyards, ports, professional services, engineers, offshore - to really make the most out of these opportunities.

The fact is, psychologically, that we are looking globally. I can tell you anecdotally that we have a number of German and Dutch businesses now moving into the North West because actually, theyre seeing the opportunities of transatlantic trade more here than in the EU.

This is a global gateway, not specifically for Europe. Paperwork is paperwork. Businesses are finding a way around it and understanding it - its like everything you do in business.

Playing down the significance of Brexit on the regions maritime sector - particularly in comparison to the Covid nightmare, Mr Shirling-Rooke added: We just need to get on with Brexit - just crack on. it's almost gone past us, if that makes sense.

Brexit is one of 100 things, maybe even 1,000 things that have affected maritime over the last 300 or 400 years.

We've had the war of independence, we've had emancipation, we've had pandemics, global wars, loads of stuff.

95% of all of our food, fuel and supplies comes by ship. So actually, we have the history and the knowledge to ride this out, and see it through.

It's just another issue, an opportunity to take.

Mr Shirling-Rooke was also asked about the Liverpool City Region becoming one of eight locations in England to be granted freeport status by the Chancellor at his Spring Budget earlier this year - and how that will differ from being a port within the EU.

He said: Each one will have their own separate governance. Regionally, I think it's a brilliant idea, but I think the name is terrible because people will think about what freeports used to be - but these are completely new things. These are more like Global Trade Zones.

He explained that imports will be allowed to enter with simplified customs documentation and without paying tariffs.

The freeport will be designed to specifically encourage businesses that import, process and then re-export goods

Mr Shirling-Rooke, who is also assistant chairman of Maritime UK, added: We'll be able to attract businesses to move there to create jobs, we'll be able to make financial benefits and for firms to move into one of the poorest regions in the UK and create jobs. That is no bad thing.

The plan is hoped to create up to 14,000 new jobs for the city region as well as 850m in total gross added value, and he added: I am optimistic. Anything that we can do to level up our region has got to be good.

The big fear I had with the freeport project was that we might not get one and that would put us at a massive disadvantage.

But it happened, our application was very, very strong, and very warmly received. And I think governance is really good.

So is it better for the city region to be a conventional port within the EU - or a freeport outside?

Mr Shirling-Rooke said he absolutely thinks having a freeport here will benefit the region more than the EU status quo.

He said: There's not a doubt in my mind about that, but I think it's linked with other things.

It's linked with the Government levelling-up agenda, its linked with post Covid recovery, and the decarbonisation opportunity that we have here is huge, as maritime is a big polluter.

Now, if we can find some of the solutions in this region - and we have some of the best maritime universities in the world and some of the best shipping lines in the world, some of the best engineers in the world - that would be fantastic.

You throw in freeports and well, and that becomes quite an interesting cake that we're going to bake.

Steve Crane, managing director of shipping and logistics specialist Brunswick International, said leaving the EU has been phenomenal for his and other similar firms working around the Port of Liverpool.

In May, the firm, which specialises in customs clearance at UK ports, opened a new 2m premises in Hunts Cross , reporting that business within the EU had increased five-fold since Brexit.

He said his firm took on staff ahead of Januarys Brexit date, anticipating an influx in demand.

He said: Work levels have gone up hundreds of percent because of Brexit.

The customs department used to look after deep sea movements from America and China. But now with Brexit, we are clearing vast amounts of trailers and shipments per day from the EU. That's just the way it's changed, and with that comes more staff requirements.

Mr Crane said that with even more documentation related to food import licences set to be required from January onwards, things are getting busier and busier.

He added: The workload is just continuous for us. It just doesn't seem to be getting any less, and with this comes all the work as well, in shipping, warehousing and transport.

For our industry, it's phenomenal, and we and others are creating jobs to match the demand.

All of the companies in the sector Ive spoken to have seen something similar. Many are actually refusing work because theyve got too much of it and they havent got enough staff availability.

Tom is North West Business Editor for the ECHO, Business Live and Reach plc titles.

Here are more of his stories.

You can follow Tom on Twitter here, or contact him on Facebook.

Email him on tom.houghton@reachplc.com

Did you film a great video? Send your footage via WhatsApp: 07831256877

Keep up to date with the latest breaking news from the Liverpool ECHO here

Like the ECHO Facebook page and follow @livechonews and @livechobusiness Twitter

Mr Crane said he has seen Brexit as a success for the UK, adding: I wanted to leave for political reasons and for selfish reasons because I knew what it would do for the business.

I still think that we have now proven the point that we are a really strong country.

We are standing alone on our own two feet.

Original post:

Post-Brexit Liverpool: A city full of regret or one set to thrive in 'global Britain'? - Liverpool Echo