BREXIT
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“ Businesses have become increasingly frustrated because UK-EU relations don’ t have to be this way. There are many steps that can be taken to simplify trade and benefit both our economies.”
Brexit – ten years of change
June 23, 2016
The UK votes to leave the European Union, with 51.9 percent voting Leave and 48.1 percent Remain.
March 29, 2017
The UK triggers Article 50, formally beginning the process of leaving the EU.
January 31, 2020
The United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union and enters a transition period.
December 24, 2020
The UK and EU agree the Trade and Cooperation Agreement governing their future trading relationship.
December 31, 2020
The transition period ends and the UK leaves the EU single market and customs union.
January 1, 2021
The new UK-EU trading relationship begins, with new customs and regulatory requirements affecting British exports to the EU.
January 31, 2024
The UK introduces the first major new controls on imports of EU goods under its post-Brexit border regime.
June 23, 2026
Ten years since the referendum, businesses continue to call for changes designed to reduce barriers to UK-EU trade.
The supply-chain question
The BCC is also warning of another potential challenge for British companies: the EU’ s emerging Made in Europe agenda.
There are differing views within the EU about exactly how such an approach should operate, but the BCC believes a more restrictive version could have significant consequences for crossborder trade.
Rules requiring a greater proportion of goods or components to be sourced from within the EU could potentially leave UK businesses at a disadvantage because Britain now sits outside the bloc as a third country.
For Staffordshire manufacturers and other companies operating within complex European supply chains, such decisions could have consequences extending far beyond customs declarations at the border.
The BCC says the issues still requiring attention include customs red tape, VAT complexity, business mobility and mutual recognition of professional qualifications, alongside greater cooperation on defence.
Its argument is that reducing these barriers could allow businesses to trade more easily without reopening the question of Britain’ s EU membership.
Looking forward
A decade after the referendum, the BCC is not calling for Britain to rejoin the European Union or its customs union.
Instead, it wants the Government to concentrate on improving the trading relationship businesses have today.
Bain said:“ Top of the list must be finalising what has already been agreed. The bigger prize must be an economic security deal that confirms the UK’ s involvement in EU supply chains and provides for closer defence cooperation.
“ These are the practical steps that can make a difference and ease the Brexit burden that firms have had to endure.
“ But debates about rejoining the EU or a customs union are not currently helpful. Firms tell us they want more trade with Europe the US and Asia.
“ Businesses tell us they do not want to keep retreading old ground but look forward instead. Rejoining would compromise the trade deals we have made since leaving and cut our advantages in areas such as AI where our regulatory approach differs.”
Ten years after the vote that transformed Britain’ s relationship with Europe, that may increasingly reflect the question facing businesses.
Not whether Brexit should have happened, but how the trading relationship that followed can be made to work better.
For Staffordshire’ s exporters, manufacturers and internationally focused businesses, the next phase may ultimately be judged less by the politics surrounding UK-EU relations than by something much more tangible: whether it becomes easier to do business.
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