UK exports to the EU plummeted by £5.6 billion in the first month of this year as Brexit border chaos for fishing and other industries drove home the effects of leaving the Single Market.
Official figures confirmed a huge 41 per cent drop in trade across the English Channel during January, the first month after the end of the transition period.
The export of food and live animals to the EU plummeted by a massive 64 per cent in January, the figures show, mainly because of strict checks by the EU.
The Scottish Seafood Association has reported that sign-offs on consignments are now taking six times longer than previously.
The government stats also revealed a 2.9 per cent drop in GDP, the nation’s overall wealth, in the same month and a fall in imports.
Labour Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds said: “Today’s figures confirm that under the Conservatives we’ve had the worst economic crisis of any major economy.
“Rather than securing the recovery, Rishi Sunak’s budget last week risked weakening it through a combination of pay cuts and tax rises, and a looming cut to social security just as unemployment is set to spike."
SNP Shadow International Trade Secretary Drew Hendry MP said: “These are devastating figures which fully vindicate the years of warnings that Brexit would do enormous damage to jobs and the economy, warnings that Boris Johnson and the Tories arrogantly ignored.
“Firms are already struggling to stay afloat due to the pandemic. The Prime Minister - who once stood beside a bus promising people £350m a week for the NHS after Brexit - now must answer for this act of reckless economic vandalism.”
While officials have been reluctant to blame Brexit for the fall in trade, they admit the figures show evidence that customs disruption was behind some of the fall.
The Office for National Statistics said. “External evidence suggests some of the slower trade for goods in early January 2021 could be attributable to disruption caused by the end of the transition period.”
It said the weak figures likely reflected a lull after stockpiling in November and December ahead of the end of the Brexit transition period and it also pointed to a new national coronavirus lockdown in Britain that started in January.
“All of these are potential contributing factors to the fall in January trade in goods,” the ONS concluded.
Imports also fell overall by a fifth, worth £8.9 billion, while imports from the EU dropped £6.6 billion the figures show.
Companies had been stockpiling ahead of the end of the transition period, and may also have been using their stock instead of buying new goods in January.
Because the value of imports fell more than exports in January, the trade deficit for the month narrowed by £3.7 billion to £1.9 billion.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the figures were an “ominous indication of the damage being done to post-Brexit trade with the EU by the current border disruption.”
Head of Economics, Suren Thiru, said: “Although the postponement of import checks will help avoid exacerbating the current disruption, there must be a greater focus on long-term solutions to improving the flow of UK-EU trade. Offering tax credits to support firms to adapt to the new arrangements would help many address new burdens and requirements better.”
