Tomorrow is a dark day for small businesses in the UK

[lostmybuttons]

I run a small business, mostly selling on Etsy. But as of tomorrow, Friday 13th December the introduction of the new GPSR legislation is creating such a huge headache for businesses like mine.

We can no longer sell to the EU or Northern Ireland, without paying for an appointed representative to ensure our products are safe. The cost for this is completely unachievable for most businesses like mine. Obviously, we all want our products to be as safe as possible but is it right that it'll cost me at least £2,000 a year to tell me my paper stationery is safe!!

Our only choice is to stop selling to the EU and Northern Ireland, which is a huge loss in income for those already struggling.

We feel like we are shouting into the void and absolutely no one is listening.

This is compounded by the fact that Etsy refuse to separate Northern Ireland in our shipping settings, so by default we are all breaking the legislation and risking fine of up to £20,000.

All Etsy have advised is to cancel any NI orders, which frankly is terrible customer service.

If there was ever a time to shop independent, your small business friends need you now.

I did, I was posting to agree. My previous posts mentioned that NI makes up a good portion of my customers

I’m in NI and I’ve already given up trying to order online from anything other than big chains, and even then only some of them. Most small to medium businesses still have notices on their websites saying that they can’t ship to NI “at the moment” due to Brexit and I know fine well that “at the moment” has long since turned in to “forever more”. And any that do charge ££ more for delivery. It’s absolutely infuriating. Sorry your business will be impacted, OP.

Very nice of you to say so. We often feel like an afterthought here in NI and, as I mentioned in a previous post, sometimes we get people in GB positively refusing to take our money 🤷‍♀️

The attitude of businesses of ignoring NI and RoI, as well as the islands makes me quite cross, perhaps this will make some businesses rethink that policy because we can't survive in ever decreasing circles.

Trade is an issue and I wasn't for Brexit but this isn't correct

We can no longer return asylum seekers back across our borders to the EU because we've left the Dublin Agreement. That's why we now have a flotilla of small votes crossing the channel.

Look up numbers for Dublin agreement they were tiny and we took more than returned

Can you put a QR code on the back of the card that links to a product specification page ?

Very well said RadioBamboo 👏👏👏

I can’t believe that some people are still shouting about the benefits of Brexit on a thread that is actually highlighting its real life negative impacts!

I was talking about this yesterday with a close friend. She hand makes leather goods, mostly bridles ect for horses that are custom designed for each client. She actually gave up her job last year to be able to work on her business full time.
This has over night wiped out half her market and she has had to cancel orders. It isn't feasible for her to pay someone in the EU and she had no idea this was happening until she saw a similar business put up a post saying they can no longer take orders from the EU. This is where most of her clients are based as it's a bit of a niche market and her products are expensive as it takes her so long to make each one for that individual horse.
She is hoping something will eventually get sorted out but it's so stressful.

It isn't feasible for her to pay someone in the EU

There's a helpful post below outlining a lower cost way to do this

We can tell that you are not a small business.

Let’s hope Labour can make steps for imports as well as exports easier for the UK.
It’s only the very rich that profit from Brexit, making tax loop holes and tax free ports as well as using tax free havens. Their money used for propaganda brainwashed the general public eg red bus.

If you're a micro business & sending to NI, I would note the government website says
"Authorities will continue to take a proportionate, risk-based, and intelligence-led approach to regulating the NI market, prioritising unsafe products"
They repeat 'proportionate & risk based' several times and in my experience of selling in a very regulated industry, that wording means they have zero intention of enforcing this for small scale sellers shipping to NI.

For the problems being discussed here it's not possible to go any further than we have done in the Trade & Cooperation Agreement. The UK would need to rejoin the single market, which realistically isn't happening. We need to learn to live with it.

The numbers were tiny because there was little point in people coming here knowing that they would be turned right around and sent back. The Dublin Agreement served as a huge disincentive. There was no small-boats problem before brexit. The reason why the numbers have exploded since is because it's no longer possible for the UK to return the people making the crossing.

@RadioBamboo that's really not the case. If it were the EU wouldn't be struggling with the same issues as they still have the agreement in place.

It's not a disincentive at all. Look at Germany for example the DA has not resolved the issues they face

what an awful thing to say.

😆

Not in this case.

We are the weaker the party, we need the EU to trade with, our young people are disadvantaged, EU students have 31 countries to work/study in... EU/EAA.

If we want more access, we will have to follow ECJ and thats going to be a hard sell... yesterdays papers were full of "Starmer sells out Brexit" rubbish.

*

On the Dublin agreement, isn't it funny that sending 200 migrants to Rwanda would stop cross channel migration but being sent back to a mainland European country from the UK, isn't any sort of deterrent at all?

One only needs to look at the numbers of cross channel migrants pre January 21 and post January 21 to realise something dramatic changed.

Schengen makes the Dublin agreement a bit pointless, Germany sends a migrant back to Italy? same migrant can travel back to Germany quite easily, not so an Island nation, not in Schengen.

If the Dublin Agreement were a deterrent the rest of the EU wouldn't be struggling with migration issues

It's not hard to see that they are, if the pp looks at news and politics outside the UK

Then look at what a deterrent does eg Aus which is small numbers now

Thanks for your valuable insight but I work in this area. The EU has a wish list, we have a wish list, we will negotiate and compromise on a deal to benefit both sides.

Of course you do...

Then you'll know that ECJ over sight is a red line for the EU, Bojo got as much as he could WITHOUT ECJ oversight.

If the UK wants better trade, then it will need to follow more EU rules and hence the ECJ, we been here before, "Cake and Eat it" was the one of the last phrases used, another "they need us more than we need them..."

Starmer has ruled out Erasmus, ruled out FOM for younger people.

Whether people are just being obtuse or just trying not to attribute blame to their party of choice... i don't know? but the Dublin Agreement is useless when you ve land borders and in Schengen, but thats not the case with the UK, so comparisons with the EU and their immigration problems are a red herring.

Anyone in doubt should look at numbers crossing pre 2021 and post 2021

Unlike you, I actually work on this stuff and I don’t take the BS the Daily Mail says as gospel. DM is shite and uninformed but we’re at the early stages and until we formally negotiate, no-one knows the outcome. But I’m only talking trade agreements etc. not illegal immigrants and the Dublin agreement which you’re trying to conflate into your response.

We know exactly how it works, we spent several years trying to get a deal that didn't damage the UK and couldn't get one, you should know this and wtf has the Mail got to do with it, why are you mentioning this rag?

The EU is a rules based organisation, changing its rules is very difficult &it wont do this for the UK.

We are not at any stage yet, other than telling the EU we are a new Govt, forget about the Tories.

But the ECJ and Fishing are highly problematic for the UK, these wont go away, whatever Labour think.

If i had my way, we'd be negotiating to rejoin, not pissing about at the edges.

The Dublin stuff is to counter rubbish by another poster, i should have made that clear.