It was in the section along with "Unicorns" and "Fairy Tales"

 

Brexit really hits home when your thinking of buying something from europe, ive spent a packet lately on additional postage costs to the UK which seem to have gone up plus VAT and customs charges.

 

This is the quality and ineptitude of both the designers of Brexit and the current administration

 

Funny, ive bought a few items, one for mid 300 pounds, no charges, one for 150 no charges. A few items would not be delivered unless i ordered many so foind a supply in the UK after a little more looking

 

As an example of one item i bought, i spent £350 on something via ebay, ebay now automatically collect the VAT and bill you straight away for it. You then get increasd postage charges as all the firms seem to have put up international shipping to the UK, and if it comes via parcel force they ask you for a further amount around £14 called something like an admin fee.

 

Non of my deliveries came via royal mail/parcelfarce

 

WTO might be back on-Wahoooo

 

With regards to the VAT, several of the sites I regularly buy electronic and other parts from have started doing the same.

 

They are in many ways similar, but the federal government in the US has much more power over the states than the EU does over its member countries, including the ability to set many taxes. EU member states remain sovereign and the EU is ultimately controlled by the member states through the council of Europe while in the US the states have no direct control of the federal government.

 

That is the rub, the EU want to be something like the USA.

The problem will be removing the individual nations identity.

I expect many to flatly refuse to relinquish their identity.

Either leading to a newly formed smaller group of European countries forming a block or the disbandment of the eu project

 

This is your problem, that you think of the EU as some sort of autonomous entity which they are not!

You cannot say the EU wants to do this or that because the EU can't do anything on its own. It would be correct to say that some of the EU member states would like further EU integration in the direction of the USA, but unless all member states want that, (which they don't) then it is impossible! Further integration can only be achieved by new treaties agreed by member states which can only be pursued by the member states themselves!

However, with the UK now out of the way, there is one less hurdle for the EU members to pursue further integration. If anything Euro-skeptic Britain leaving the block is a positive point for the EU to become stronger and more integrated!

 

North America seems to have done quite well over the years as a federation

 

I see it as a positive thing!

In an ideal world we would abolish all countries and live as once race of human beings! Nationalism is only a bad thing!

 

Different time in history when the United states formed. The individual countries in Europe will not relinquish their identities further. Maybe Germany and France, in-fact I even doubt France, its more EU sceptic than the UK outside Paris.

 

Look at the ghastly mess Texas has made from going it alone in the last month

 

Haha, one minute you're arguing that the EU wants further integration, then next you're arguing it will never happen!

 

The EU and some politicians want further federal integration, but many countries will not agree. Opposite ends of the same argument.

 

So given our trade deal with Turkey and Political murmurings of a UK migrant/asylum processing centre based in Turkey

Is the next step replacing the low-level EU workers with Turkish workers?

1960's Germany all over again

Also the perpetual Turkish holiday advert on the telly makes me think there is some sinister brainwashing going on here...catchy tune...anyone watch the Simpsons "New Kids on the Blecch" episode? (S12E14...cheers google)

 

The need for Migrant workers post Brexit is now so high, police are having to stop them leaving

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-surrey-56481377

 

Looks like the Conservatives attempt to smear the SNP ahead of Scottish government elections has fallen flat on its face with the wee Krankie cleared of any wrongdoing in the Alex Salmond affair!

Looks like it will be full steam ahead for Scottish independence now! So much for the EU falling apart after Brexit, its the UK that's crumbling from within!

 

Talking of Brexit, can anyone explain to me what is covered in the free trade agreement between the UK and EU, because postage has gone up and shipping anything now requires customs declarations etc.

Plus all the parts the British company I work for keep getting held up in customs in Germany and in some cases shipped back to the UK.

I had to fill out a customs declaration for the birthday present I posted to my mate in the UK last week and it was not cheap to post either.

Not impressed with Brexit it is causing a nightmare.

 

Its was Alex Salmond who brought the allegations, a former SNP leader.

Court of public opinion points to a damaged SNP due to Sturgeons vague recollection of events.

There are huge issues, which Scotland cannot shy away from. Financially a catastrophic position if and a big big big if that they won independence.

Akin to Greece joining the euro when it wasnt in any position to cope with it

 

Only goods completely manufactured in the UK/EU can be freely traded, so for example a T-Shirt manufactured in Bangladesh and imported to the UK cannot then be exported tariff free to the EU, however if the T-Shirt was manufactured in the UK then there would be no tariffs due.

Everything that is sent required a customs declaration declaring the manufacturing origin of the goods.

If you want to send stuff to the UK, best order from a UK online shop and have it delivered locally! That's what I have to do with presents for my Nieces in New Zealand, otherwise it takes ages for delivery and my Bro often gets landed with an import fee!

Be careful when ordering stuff off Amazon/Ebay that the seller is not based in the UK, otherwise you have the same problems you have when the seller was in China!

 

I posted a Garmin Fenix 6S Pro which I already owned to my mate, I have no idea where it was made but I ordered it from a German company in Germany and it was delivered to a German address.

 

On the customs declaration you would probably state that its a gift and you'd probably also have to state the value.
While it may have been supplied by a German supplier (EU import duties will have been paid), it is unlikely to have been manufactured in the EU, in which case it's not covered by free trade agreement between the EU/UK. As a gift, you can normally avoid import duties, however it depends on the value of the gift if duties will be applicable, so you're mate my receive it OK or might get stung for VAT and duties in the UK!

 

Sourced from Garmin , Southampton i suspect

The Greeks dont like paying tax , the scots do as far as i know

 

Food export figures now available for January. Exports to the EU are down 75.5% (-£750 Mil) while to non-EU countries they are down 11.1%.
Almost completely wiped out entirely are exports of Salmon (-98%) and Beef (-91.5%)!!!
Imports from the EU are down just 24.8% so I guess that blows the "they need us more than we need them" argument.

Corona of course has an impact which would account for the 11% drop in exports to the rest of the world which leads you with 64% drop for the EU.
There is also some pre-Brexit stockpiling which would explain some of the addition drop in imports from the EU where the UK is still waving all import goods through without checks.
So that still leaves around 40-50% drop in exports which is purely down to the post Brexit trade barriers.

https://www.fdf.org.uk/globalassets/...t-jan-2021.pdf

So Brexiteers, is this what you knew you were voting for?

 

Not so much the trade barriers , more to do with customs being overwhelmed , we send quite a bit of stuff to the EU , and the hold up in customs was unbelievable , some countries a lot worse than other , France , Spain , Portugal and Italy being the worst , especially Italy , what would take 2-3 days was taking up to 6-8 weeks !
Quite a few of the big name couriers stopped collecting EU parcels for a while as their depots were full.
Now they seem to be getting to grips with it , they are getting them through a lot faster , so the figures for the second quarter will look a lot better
I think it's taken quite a few people by surprise how badly customs have dealt with it all

 

It may have taken people by surprise, but considering the reports that came out midway through last year highlighting the fact that an extra 50,000* extra customs staff would be needed just on the UK side to deal with all the new paperwork, it certainly shouldn't have been that much of a shock.

* Just to make clear that this figure is not a typo! The same report also pointed out that the cost of filling out the new paperwork annually would amount to an estimated £7 billion.

 

It wouldn't surprise me , DPD was said to have a backlog of 1 million parcels at one time , I would imagine the other big name couriers to be the same .
in all fairness when we are tracking the parcels , the hold ups seem more the EU's side than ours , they are not in UK customs for long