Since Brexit was formalized, news has not stopped happening that does not leave the decision of the British in a good place, above all, in terms of imports and the labor market. A situation that has been aggravated in a context already complicated by the rising prices after the invasion of Ukraine.
Over the last year, we have seen images of country supermarkets with empty shelves due to the increase in costs and some climatic circumstances that complicated the cultivation. A scenario that has forced the resort to imports. Thus, a study by the London School of Economics (LSE) reveals that the British have spent around 8,000 million euros on food imports since Brexit.
The key to this increase lies in the measures imposed by Downing Street at the borders. Specifically, the verification and control procedures that all imported products must pass, especially livestock.
According to this analysis, collected by Forbesthe impediments in transactions after the departure of the United Kingdom have meant an approximate rise 300 euros per household. In this way, food products have increased their cost by 25% since 2019, a percentage that would have been 17% if the trade restrictions had not been applied.
Food, the most affected
Despite these data, the Prime Minister of this country, Rishi Sunak, continues to defend that Brexit has not been a failure, according to Forbes. Along these lines, he blames the criticism on the opposition. From the European Union, the body in charge of this operation has indicated that the extra spending has been 40,000 million for the British in terms of trade and investment.
A situation that has led to highest inflation rate of all industrialized countries, according to the Office for National Statistics. In fact, despite the fact that the rise in prices fell by close to 1.5 percentage points in April, standing at 8.7%, in the food sector it stands at 19%.
A voluntary price restriction
It seems that the problem is not going to improve in the short term, which is leading Sunak to consider drastic measures to alleviate this increase. Among them is the price caps on basic foods to retailers, who have already positioned themselves against it.
Subsequently, the government spokesman pointed out that this price restriction would be “voluntary”. But the situation keeps getting worse for Sunak, who in January -when inflation was at 10%- promised to cut it in half.
“Many of the costs that are keeping inflation high now arise from the confusion of new regulations coming from the government,” Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said in a statement. These rules refer specifically to those of recycling and controls on imports.
2023-06-04 05:01:34
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