It is almost four years since the UK signed its Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU, but for small and medium-sized businesses in the chemicals sector, the pain caused by leaving the bloc’s single market is not fading.
For Richard Lock, managing director of Holiferm, which makes natural “surfactants” used in shampoos and other household products, Britain’s exit continues to add to logistics and regulatory compliance costs.
“Pre-Brexit you could get products anywhere in Europe in three days. Now it’s two weeks, so I have to manage expectations of customers, and then there’s the risk of human error getting consignments held up at the border,” he said, in the boardroom of the manufacturer’s plant on the Wirral outside Liverpool.
Lock’s company, a spinout from Manchester university, must now comply with two divergent regulatory regimes. The obligation to observe different registration requirements for new chemicals has raised compliance costs to the third-highest in the business, after salaries and capital investment.
As Sir Keir Starmer’s government prepares to “reset” its trading relationship with Brussels in 2025, Holiferm is far from alone in its travails, according to the Chemical Business Association.
In a third-quarter survey by the body that represents mostly SMEs in the UK’s chemicals supply chain, 71 per cent of members reported “ongoing difficulties” importing and exporting products. Some 82 per cent said uncertainty over dual regulatory regimes was an “ongoing issue”.
Last month, Rachel Reeves and Andrew Bailey both warned of the continuing economic impacts of Brexit, with the Bank of England governor noting that it was important to be “alert to and welcome opportunities to rebuild relations” with Brussels.
The chancellor, who has promised to forge closer ties with the EU, told the Financial Times before the general election that chemicals was among the industries that could expect improvements to trade.
“I don’t think anyone voted Leave because they were not happy that chemicals regulations were the same across Europe,” Reeves said, while reiterating Labour’s pledge not to rejoin the EU single market or customs union.
Talks on the “reset” are expected in the spring, but industry remains unclear as to how the government will substantially ease post-Brexit frictions while sticking to its red lines on EU policy.
CBA chief executive Tim Doggett said logistical problems meant businesses that previously held a week’s worth of stock were now holding up to a month’s worth. This was increasing warehousing costs and tying up cash flow, making it harder to invest in growth, he said.
Industry was also still waiting for clarity from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs over the shape of the UK’s future regulatory regime for chemicals, Doggett added.
Chemicals was “one of the most exposed sectors to Brexit shock”, according to a paper published in September by economists at Aston university who modelled Brexit’s impacts on trade. It said customs costs and the divergent regulatory regimes were “disproportionally more challenging for smaller businesses”.
After Brexit, the UK left the EU’s REACH regulations, which require companies to register chemicals before putting them on the market. The rules include providing safety testing data that can cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to generate.
Britain promised to set up its own regime, UK REACH, but has repeatedly delayed introducing the rules after calculating that it would cost industry more than £2bn to duplicate data already collated by EU chemical agency ECHA in Helsinki.
Doggett said businesses were still waiting for information on the government’s plan for bespoke domestic regulation, after a consultation closed in late July.
“It’s nearly four years and we’re really none the wiser than when we left. [Former Conservative environment secretary] George Eustice said ‘we’ll explore an alternative model’ and, well, we’re still exploring,” he added.
Reeves hinted in her pre-election interview that ministers would consider unilaterally aligning with EU chemical regulations. But the sector has warned that such a move would not improve access to markets if the UK remained outside the single market.
Both the CBA and the Chemical Industries Association, which speaks for larger chemical companies, have said businesses do not necessarily want to follow EU rules without question if doing so fails to restore access to the single market.
“Alignment doesn’t necessarily mean automatic access if the UK is outside of the single market and still needs to prove compliance at the border and therefore does not benefit from levels of friction-free access,” the CIA said.
Lock of Holiferm said that if the UK remained outside the EU, it should create a more advanced regulatory regime that used new assessment methods to avoid testing on animals and boost homegrown companies.
“If there was a quicker route to access into the UK for new molecules, that means I can sell it quicker in the UK and demonstrate uptake to potential international markets,” he added.
Steve Elliott, CIA chief executive, also called for urgent action to ease concerns in a sector that exports more than £60bn worth of goods a year, half of which goes to the EU, but is also being buffeted by energy costs and geopolitical instability.
UK chemical production was more than 25 per cent below pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter of this year, according to a survey of CIA members, with 26 per cent of businesses reporting lower exports and UK sites “struggling to compete for investment” against other regions.
“Without decisive action, the risk of further decline is significant, which could have a knock-on effect across the economy,” Elliott added.
The Cabinet Office said it would not provide a running commentary on future negotiations with the EU. “We will work to improve the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU across a range of areas,” it added.
Back in Birkenhead, Lock said Holiferm had plans to expand but cautioned that Brexit frictions would affect where the company built new plants.
“There are reasons to manufacture in the UK but it makes the decision harder. You reach the point where you just say: ‘Do you know what, the hassle to get the product to the customer is just too much’.”