From red tape to Rockall: 10 effects of Brexit, one month on – Independent.ie

Meat and seafood has been left to rot in ports as shipments have been delayed by reams of paperwork. Supermarket shelves north and south of the border have been bare of certain products. Mechanics cant get car parts, and supplies of certain bikes to Irish cycle shops have stopped.

ven unionists who fought wholeheartedly for Brexit are now grumbling about its effects.

The only comfort for the politicians who planned Brexit is that it has been eclipsed by the greater crisis of Covid-19. And they can still cling to the hope that the problems will be ironed out.

British ministers put the early logjams down to teething problems. But as one commentator remarked that, for some, Brexit now feels more like having root canal surgery without the benefit of an anaesthetic.

There are fears that the troubles are only starting, because Britain does not impose many of its import controls until July 1.

Of course, it could have been a lot worse: a no-deal exit was avoided, and with it the prospect of economic paralysis. There is no hard border scarring the island with menacing customs posts.

Favourite biscuit brands, exotic fruits, vegetables and yoghurt may have been unavailable in some supermarkets, but it has hardly been a Brexit apocalypse. There are bound to be opportunities for businesses that adapt, although the departure of the UK from the EU is still causing severe headaches.

Duncan Graham, chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, told Review: People went into Christmas and breathed a huge sigh of relief that a deal had been done. It was not really until January 3 that reality began to dawn.

So what are the effects one month on?

1 Prices are likely to rise

The fact that there are no tariffs on goods coming from the UK may have nurtured hopes that there would be few price rises. But the administrative costs to British exporters bringing goods to Ireland have soared, and that is bound to lead to an increase in Irish prices, according to Edgar Morgenroth, professor of economics at Dublin City University Business School.

With exporters from Britain strangled in red tape, he told Review: Non-tariff barriers such as the extra paperwork required to clear customs can be just as costly as the tariffs.

Non-perishable goods on sale now may have been stockpiled before January 1, so price rises have not yet kicked in.

Customs consultant Tony Buckley predicted prices will rise by 5pc this year once Brexit takes a full effect.

Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association, predicts significant increases across the food sector.

The industry body Food and Drink Ireland this week also predicted that bread prices could rise by 9pc because of likely tariffs on flour imported from Britain.

There are no commercial flour mills in the State, and we rely heavily on imports from Britain. Because the British millers rely on US or Canadian wheat, imported flour will now be targeted with tariffs when it enters Ireland.

2 Brexit is turning out to be fiendishly bureaucratic

It is ironic that Brexit was originally devised as a way of ridding Britain of a vast array of regulations and petty rules, imposed, according to the Tory press, by barmy Brussels bureaucrats.

In British newspapers in the 1990s, there were reams of euromyths about Brussels officials insisting that donkeys on beaches would have to wear nappies, bananas would have to be straight and lobsters on journeys would have to be given rest breaks. Some of these fictitious stories were written by Boris Johnson himself when he was a Brussels reporter.

Now that they are liberated from the EU, British exporters are now facing a vast array of complicated trading rules and customs regulations. It has been estimated that British companies will need to employ up to 50,000 customs agents and fill out an extra 215 million customs declaration forms each year to comply with new trading rules.

Some of the worst fears of the doomsayers have been fulfilled, as lorries full of goods were delayed for days because paperwork was not in order.

Part of the problem is that different products in mixed loads of goods on lorries require different customs declarations.

While there are in theory no tariffs on goods from the UK, many of them have ingredients or parts from other parts of the world, and these may incur charges.

3 Tonnes of food have gone to waste

Meat and seafood exporters in Britain have complained of lorry loads of fresh meat and fish rotting in ports as a result of administrative delays. Problems have arisen with food exported from Britain, including some imports of fruit and vegetables to Ireland.

The delays are increasing the levels of waste and that is morally reprehensible, said Vincent Jennings of the Convenience Store and Newsagents Association. When you have perishable goods, they should be allowed to come through on the promise that whatever paperwork is missing it will be sorted out within a set period of time.

Thats what they should do rather than holding stuff up, allowing the sell-by-date to come too close and then we end up having to dump it.

Jennings said he has heard reports of loads of fruit and vegetable being dumped.

The Grocer magazine reported this week on figures from the British government predicting that up to 142,000 tonnes of food and drink may be lost in waste in the next six months if the worst-case scenario at the ports occurs.

4 Ireland is facing a bike shortage

Cycle shops in Ireland complain that big producers of bicycles have stopped supplying them. Although many bikes are made in Asia, they are distributed through the UK, along with many other products such as car parts and accessories. Containers of bicycles that were supposed to arrive before Christmas were turned back, and some brands are unavailable.

Gary ODonoghue of the Dublin shop Cycle Zone said he had received an email from bicycle maker Giant that no bikes would be coming to Ireland until the Brexit problems are sorted out.

At a time of huge demand, bicycle supplies had already been affected by Covid-19 and increases in the cost of shipping from China.

5 Online orders from the UK make little sense

Consumers hoping to buy from UK-based sites like Amazon.co.uk are being hammered by extra charges. Some online shoppers are using Amazons German and French sites as an alternative.

Irish customers ordering from the UK face customs charges, increased VAT and additional delivery charges. These can make the cost prohibitive, and some online retailers have stopped supplying Ireland.

Many consumers buying from the UK have complained that they were hit by charges when parcels are delivered, but some simply refused to take the goods.

Adam Mansell, head of the UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT), told the BBC it was cheaper for retailers to write off the cost of the goods than dealing with it all, either abandoning or potentially burning them.

6 Irish online retailers can benefit

Irish shops can make the most of the Brexit shambles in the UK, as consumers turn away from British sites to shop local and shop Irish. Duncan Graham of Retail Excellence Ireland said many Irish shops have upgraded their websites or started new sites over the past year.

Since the start of the Covid crisis, theres been a surge in registrations of Irish .ie domain names, and these websites now have the chance to cash in. Theres definitely an opportunity to buy from Irish retailers again if its going to cost much more to buy from the UK, he says.

But Irish consumers have been warned to check that Irish domain names selling goods really are based in Ireland and not in the UK. Some buyers have visited sites that have .ie domain names, only to find that the goods come from the UK and they face import duties.

7 Scots seize Rockall

It may just be a forbidding hunk of granite that is only a suitable dwelling place for periwinkles and lost seagulls, but Ireland and Britain have periodically squabbled over Rockall over the decades.

Brexit seems to have brought matters to a head at the rock 400km off the north-east coast. This month a Scottish patrol boat was reported to have blocked a Donegal fishing vessel from entering the waters around Rockall.

The Northern Celt was boarded and its captain told that he can no longer fish within 12 nautical miles of the rock as a result of Brexit.

The fisheries patrol vessel, the Jura, had arrived in the area to assert British sovereignty on January 1, the day after the UKs Brexit transition period ended.

Is there a danger that the Wolfe Tones might reprise their rabble-rousing anthem from the 1970s, Rock on Rockall: May the Seagulls rise and pluck your eyes, and the water crush your shell / And the natural gas will burn your ass, and blow you all to hell.

8 Roger Daltrey wont get fooled again

Spare a thought for the bevy of musical stars who have been caught up in the Brexit logjam along with the lorry loads of shellfish and rotting vegetables. Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, was reported to have joined a chorus of rock stars who complained that Brexit rules on freedom of movement have limited their prospects to go on tours in Europe.

That was after he supported Brexit during the 2016 referendum campaign. This month he joined other artists including Elton John, Ed Sheeran and Sting in signing a letter criticising the UK government for not securing paperwork-free travel for British artists and their equipment.

The prominent Brexiteer and singer of such hits as Wont Get Fooled Again has previously dismissed the impact that leaving the EU would have on the British music industry. He told a Sky News reporter in 2019: As if we didnt tour Europe before the f***ing EU. Oh give it up!

Perhaps its time for him to sing one of his other hits: I Cant Explain.

9 Unionists are grumbling as the deal is implemented

Back in 2016, DUP leader Arlene Foster urged Northern Irish voters on Brexit to grasp the opportunity of a generation and vote to leave.

Although the majority in the North voted against Brexit, Foster steadfastly stuck with it, cheering on Boris Johnson as he attended the DUP party conference.

Now, as they survey empty supermarket shelves, many unionists are beside themselves with fury about the Brexit deal that in effect leaves the six counties in the single market for goods. There is now a sea border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, with customs checks in ports such as Larne, Belfast and Warrenpoint.

Mark McEwan, PSNI assistant chief constable, was moved to say this week: We are starting to see graffiti, we are picking up social media sentiment of a growing discontent, particularly within the Protestant/loyalist/unionist community.

The DUP has been vociferous in opposition to the way the Brexit deal has been implemented.

Ian Paisley, one of its MPs, said there is anger and bitterness in the communities he represents. Some sections of the community are starting to sense that they are sitting on a powder keg, he said.

10 Boom in Brexit-busting boats to the continent

With freight transport through Britain hit by administrative delays, there has been a boom for ferries sailing directly from Ireland to the continent.

Eighteen months ago, Rosslare was in the doldrums, but now the Wexford port is enjoying a dramatic revival as transport companies try to avoid Britains Brexit troubles.

Freight traffic is reported to have increased by 500pc in the first half of January.

All five operators connecting Ireland to mainland Europe have increased ferry services in the past nine months. Stena Line, the largest Irish Sea operator, has doubled its services on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route, temporarily cancelling some sailings to Britain.

DFDS, a Danish operator, said the freight ferries on its new 23-hour crossing from Rosslare to Dunkirk six days a week were pretty much full.

There are also Brexit-busting services from Dublin to the continent that have started since the 2016 referendum.

The largest roll-on roll-off ferries operating out of the capital serve Zeebrugge in Belgium and Rotterdam in Holland.

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From red tape to Rockall: 10 effects of Brexit, one month on - Independent.ie