Businesses preparing for Brexit
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2019
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Exporters express their fears and frustration at the lack of any agreement about future trade relations with just six weeks left to go until the UK leaves the EU.
Adam Sopher of popcorn manufacturer Joe & Sephs tells Ed Butler how he is now having to send his wares to Asia via air freight, because by the time the usual ships reach dock in Hong Kong the UK will have left already and he still doesn't know what tariffs he will have to pay. Pauline Bastidon of the Freight Transport Association describes how British road hauliers are having to take part in a lottery for permits to continue operating in the EU, with many being left empty handed.
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, MP Pieter Omtzigt, who acts as a Brexit point person for his country's parliament, explains how the Dutch have been preparing far longer than their British counterparts for the possibility of the UK crashing out of the EU with no trade deal at all. Plus Paul Hodges of the consultancy Ready for Brexit explains why so many of the small businesses he speaks to are far from being that.
(Picture: Frustrated businessman tearing at his hair; Credit: djedzura/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:39.5 | Hello, I'm Ed Butler and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today, how companies on both |
| 0:45.6 | sides of the English Channel are dealing with Brexit uncertainty. Companies with four or five |
| 0:51.6 | employees who are occasionally exporting to the UK, they will be exposed. |
| 0:56.0 | A lot of companies are going, will speak to you after Brexit. |
| 0:59.5 | We know we don't want to speak to you before. |
| 1:01.0 | Nobody has ever gone through this process before. |
| 1:04.2 | We've got no guidelines at all. |
| 1:05.8 | They are trying to be patient, but their patience is wearing very thin indeed. |
| 1:13.4 | Yep, deal or no deal? That is the Brexit question of the hour in Business Daily from the BBC. It's another busy and chaotic |
| 1:22.5 | week, it seems in UK politics, the British Prime Minister is back in Brussels speaking to the leaders |
| 1:27.0 | of every EU member state, speaking to the leaders of every |
| 1:27.6 | EU member state, hoping to win concessions over the most contentious part of the Brexit withdrawal |
| 1:33.1 | agreement with the EU, concessions that European leaders say they will not provide. The main |
| 1:38.9 | opposition Labour Party, meanwhile, is reeling from the resignation of seven of its members of parliament who say they're leaving |
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