The new controls in place over the movement of goods from the UK to the EU have created additional costs for businesses and affected international trade flows.

MPs called on the government to ‘minimise the costs to business as far as possible’, suggesting that they should: i) undertake a comprehensive exercise to identify and quantify the additional costs the business community and border stakeholders face as a result of new border requirements; and ii) identify opportunities to reduce costs and administrative burden to traders’.

Although there was some support for small to medium businesses with changing export rules, including the £20m SME Brexit Support Fund, the narrowly defined criteria meant that many businesses could not access this support and only £6.7m was paid out. HMRC said that it ‘had to make sure that the scheme gave value for money and was targeted at businesses who were not familiar with customs’.

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