H/T @PatHarrison2
A decent report from the NY Times...
"As the new year made Brexit a reality, Tony Hale encountered the pitfalls of Europeโs redrawn geography. Specifically, he confronted the need to extricate 53 tons of rotting pork products from administrative purgatory
a port in the Netherlands.
For more than two decades, Mr. Haleโs company had shipped pork to the European Union without customs checks, as if the United Kingdom and the continent across the water were one vast country.
With Britain now legally outside the bloc,
exporters suddenly had to navigate inspections, safety regulations & a bewildering crush of paperwork.
For Mr. Hale, incorrectly prepared documents meant sending five containers full of pork to an unplanned final destination : the incinerator.
โItโs a new game,& we have to learnโ
Mr. Hale said. โWe are having to double- and triple-check every document.โ
In the early days of the post-Brexit era, Britain is struggling to adapt to its new position in the global economy โ its fortunes still tethered to the European Union; its companies now on the outside.
The trade deal Britain struck late last year with the European Union stopped tariffs from being imposed on goods exchanged across the English Channel, but did not prevent the revival of customs procedures, health and safety checks, value-added taxes on imports, and other