The UK government has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
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The UK officially left the bloc at the end of January 2020 – but continued to operate on the same trade terms until the end of the year.<\/p>\n
A last-minute deal<\/strong> struck between Downing Street and Brussels on Christmas Eve meant businesses had little time to prepare for the specific terms they would be bound by for exporting – though the government warned for months there would be change of some kind.<\/p>\n DFDS, one of the busiest shipping companies in Europe, issued a warning to drivers on Friday that many vehicles are being held up or turned away from Dover in Kent<\/strong> and Calais and Dunkirk in France<\/strong>.<\/p>\n In a message on Twitter, it said: “We are experiencing a high volume of vehicles being refused and delayed at the Ports of Calais, Dunkerque and Dover, due to incorrect paperwork being presented at check-in.”<\/p>\n The delays are already having a knock-on effect on businesses.<\/p>\n Scotland<\/strong> harvests vast quantities of langoustines, scallops, oysters, lobsters and mussels which are rushed by truck to grace the tables of European diners in Paris, Brussels and Madrid.<\/p>\n But with new systems of bureaucracy and just a week to adjust to them, the quick transportation of those goods that means they can land in French shops just over a day after they were harvested has slowed.<\/p>\n “Our customers are pulling out,” said Santiago Buesa of SB Fish – a firm based in Troon, South Ayrshire.<\/p>\n “We are fresh product and the customers expect to have it fresh, so they’re not buying. It’s a catastrophe.”<\/p>\n David Noble, whose Aegirfish company buys from Scottish fleets to export to Europe, said he would have to pay £500-£600 every day for paperwork, wiping out most profit.<\/p>\n “I’m questioning whether to carry on,” he said. “If our fish is too expensive our customers will buy elsewhere.”<\/p>\n In Ireland, the country’s tax authority has temporarily eased customs arrangements after some trucks were unable to deliver goods from Britain – with several denied boarding at Holyhead port in Wales.<\/p>\n “It is clear that many were not as prepared as they thought or significantly underestimated what was involved in being Brexit-ready,” said a spokeswoman for Ireland’s Revenue Commissioners<\/p>\n It was also revealed this week that more than 50 British retailers, including M&S, face potential tariffs for re-exporting goods to the EU.<\/p>\n The supermarket warned “very complex administrative processes” will “significantly impact” its businesses in Ireland, the Czech Republic and franchises in France.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s trade deal was meant to provide zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc’s single market but it has emerged that goods sourced from outside – or even inside – the EU that are brought into the UK and then re-exported to the EU can attract a tariff under the rules of origin.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/20\/12\/768x432\/2372012310235507607_5223557.jpg\")
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