British businesses stop shipping to Northern Ireland due to updated rules
Small British businesses have stopped selling to Northern Ireland as well as Europe due to extra administrative hurdles posed by new EU customs rules coming into effect.
Many small firms said they are unable to meet new requirements for paperwork and numbering of each product as well as the need to have an “authorised representative” in the EU or Northern Ireland.
A conviction and the penalty of fines mean business owners without the resources to get legal advice are not risking getting something wrong, instead simply halting Northern Ireland and EU exports, one businesswoman told Sky News.
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The result is legislation meant to improve product safety and protect online shoppers – the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) – is ending British deliveries to some shoppers in Northern Ireland and the EU.
Firms have already pulled the deliveries though the new laws don’t come into force until Friday 13 December.
Despite not being a member of the EU since January 2020 Northern Ireland is subject to EU rules by being part of the single market, the tariff-free bloc of European states. The arrangement was designed to prevent a hard EU/UK border on the island of Ireland.
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While some businesses made a difficult decision to end shipping to Northern Ireland and Europe, others said their hands were tied.
Owner of Weirdstock bedding company Johanna Haughey-Lewis, herself from Northern Ireland, said she is upset about it but added: “I don’t feel like I had a decision. You get fines if you don’t comply with this… I just don’t have the resources to comply, at least not at this stage.”
Short notice and limited information
The issue has been made more uncertain, confusing and harder for three business owners Sky News spoke to as they only heard of the customs changes in the past few days or weeks from fellow business owners on social media. Getting clear, relevant and sufficiently detailed information hasn’t been straightforward
“It’s come out of nowhere,” Ms Haughey-Lewis said. “Everyone is scrambling, even people who we kind of expect to have the answers.”
While the government does have a webpage on GPSR, some would have liked more information and to be contacted directly about the changes, rather than receive information from social media contacts.
Kathryn Hunt, owner of home decor business Kath & Kin, thinks clearer guidance through training, workshops or perhaps allowing firms to self-certify for some items could help.
Pic: Bella Longman/The Daydreamer London.
Seeing as the government has a list of UK businesses via Companies House, Bella Longman who owns the handmade clothing business The Daydreamer London, pointed out she could have been contacted via email like she receives tax returns reminders.
“When we do our taxes, I have to say how much of my income came from the EU, it feels crazy that [the government] couldn’t get a list together and just send an email, like, ‘did you know this legislation is coming in? If you want to know more click here’, because they send emails being like, ‘you must do a tax return’,” she said.
The timing issue
But the timing was always going to be tricky with the announcement coming during the busy Christmas season.
Most businesses make enough money in November and December to see them through January and February, Ms Longman said, meaning distractions during those months can cost firms.
Pic: Weirdstock
“It is just a very precious time of year and having extra regulation now… I can’t do this right now,” she said.
Too onerous regardless
Some small businesses, however, could arguably never comply with the rules as they currently stand, even with a longer lead time.
Businesses that sell hundreds of items from different suppliers, like Kath & Kin, realised it’s just not possible despite extensively looking for solutions, Ms Hunt said.
Items have to have a batch or serial number and clear instructions and safety information “in a language which can be easily understood by consumers”, the GPSR said.
Pic: Kathryn Hall/Kath & Kin
This has led British makers to fear having to translate documents into other languages, despite the requirement not applying when it can be used “safely and as intended by the manufacturer” without instructions and safety info.
Exporters are also required to have a record of where goods come from.
Unknown scale
Business owners may not yet know the difficulties these new rules will pose to their operations.
Watch dealer and component seller Darren Townend said his businesses Forstner Bands and Vintage Speedmaster may only discover a difficulty if a product gets held up by customs, potentially for months on end.
What the economic impact of the export halting will be is not yet known.
There will be “a real barrier to international trade“, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said, but they don’t have a way to quantify who’s impacted most.
Pic: Weirdstock
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and are therefore front and centre of this government’s growth mission. We have also been clear that we want to reset our relationship with the EU to make it easier for businesses to trade with Europe.
“We are supporting SMEs across the whole of the UK to get ready for GPSR and will be publishing more guidance shortly. We will keep this under review and continue to engage businesses to ensure they are supported to trade freely.”
When asked if it had an estimated trade impact it did not provide one.
An extra pressure
The obligations come at a time when small businesses already are feeling the squeeze from cost of living pressures and previous Brexit trading changes.
They feel like they’re being hit harder than medium or large-sized operations that can hire a solicitor to give advice, or possibly absorb extra costs.
Pic: Bella Longman/The Daydreamer London.
“My concern is if you’ve got the infrastructure and you’ve got the money to spend on it, and you know how to go about all of this, then you can get through that,” Ms Hunt said.
“So these big businesses are going to thrive, while the smaller businesses that take care, that take pride in their work, that love what they do, really, really care about their customers, it’s those that are suffering.”
Time taken to understand trade updates is time not spent earning.
“Any time I’m not working on my business, I’m not earning money,” Ms Longman said.
“How do I take a week or two out of my business just to do this compliance and not take a huge financial hit?”
The Post Office is considering selling assets or taking on new borrowings to help deliver an ambition to boost sub-postmasters’ pay by £120m this year, its chairman has said.
Sky News has learnt that Nigel Railton, who was confirmed as the state-owned company’s long-term chair last week, told thousands of branch managers that it had ring-fenced £86m so far to increase their remuneration.
In a speech delivered in Chesterfield, Mr Railton is understood to have told sub-postmasters that the Post Office’s board was redoubling its efforts to meet the target of up to £120m for pay rises.
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The company was exploring options including additional cost-savings, further asset sales, sale-and-leaseback opportunities, and borrowing options, he told them.
One source said Mr Railton had said on Wednesday morning that without actions already taken by Post Office management, sub-postmasters would be left with pay increases this year of just 2%, rather than the 20% it had now secured.
The progress towards its £120m target comes just three months after the Post Office chairman was forced to deliver a bleaker prognosis to thousands of sub-postmasters keen to have their faith restored in the scandal-hit company.
In March, Mr Railton said he had yet to gain certainty from Whitehall about a £120m increase for this year.
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“Our funding discussions are positive and ongoing, but I want to be honest that we are operating in a challenging financial environment,” he told them at the time.
The Post Office is reliant on funding from the government, and last November outlined plans for an ambitious transformation of its business, which includes a substantial number of job cuts.
It remains hopeful of making up the £34m shortfall to reach its £120m target, according to insiders, as it seeks to rebuild its public and internal reputation in the aftermath of the Horizon IT scandal.
A Post Office spokesman confirmed Mr Railton’s remarks on Wednesday.
Elon Musk has criticised US President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill, calling it “outrageous” and a “disgusting abomination”.
The bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks, was passed by the House Republicans in May, and has been described by the president as a “big, beautiful bill”.
The tech billionaire hit out at the tax cuts on his platform X, writing: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination.
“Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it.”
Elon Musk left his ‘special government employee’ role last week. Pic: AP.
In American politics, “pork” is a political metaphor used when government spending is allocated to local projects, usually to benefit politicians’ constituencies.
Musk left the administration abruptly last week after working to cut costs with his team, the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency – known as DOGE – with the ambition of sacking federal workers and cutting red tape.
The White House brushed Musk’s comments aside, claiming they did not surprise the president.
In a press conference on Tuesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that “the president already knows where Elon Musk stood on this bill”.
She added: “This is one, big, beautiful bill.
“And he’s sticking to it.”
The White House on Tuesday asked Congress to cut back $9.4bn in already approved spending, taking money away from DOGE.
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What did Musk achieve at DOGE?
The billionaire tweeted: “It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!!) and burden American citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”
He also suggested voting out politicians who advanced the president’s tax bill.
“In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people,” Musk wrote in another X post.
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How Musk’s mission to cut government spending fell flat
Last Thursday, Musk revealed on X that his scheduled time as a “special government employee” was coming to an end.
Before the news broke, Musk’s father told Sky News his son was “not a very good politician”.
But speaking to Gillian Joseph on The World, Errol Musk insisted there was “no rift between Elon and Donald Trump”.
Musk’s time at DOGE was controversial, with drastic cuts to America’s humanitarian efforts sparking particular criticism.
Questions have also been raised about whether the department has actually saved taxpayers as much money as suggested.
Musk initially had ambitions to slash government spending by $2trn (£1.5trn) – but this was dramatically reduced to $1trn (£750bn) and then to just $150bn (£111bn).
Elon Musk brought his son X Æ A-12 to the Oval Office during a press conference earlier this year. Pic: Reuters.
The 53-year-old, who famously brought his son X Æ A-12 to the Oval Office, also expressed frustration about resistance to his ideas and clashed with other senior members of the Trump administration.
He recently told The Washington Post: “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realised. I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in DC to say the least.”
By law, status as a “special government employee” means he could only serve for a maximum of 130 days, which would have ended around 30 May.
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