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IMMIGRATION

‘Costs and hurdles’: How Brexit is already hurting Austria-UK trade

A month after Brexit became a reality, problems are already mounting up around trade between Austria and the UK, according to reports.

'Costs and hurdles': How Brexit is already hurting Austria-UK trade
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP

Up to 80 percent of shipments of goods between the Austrian state of Styria and the UK are incorrectly declared, according to the Internationalisation Centre in Styria (ICS), and it is believed the number is similarly high for the rest of Austria, Wiener Zeitung reports.

Incorrectly declared shipments of goods are messing up the transport logistics, meaning longer delivery times and higher transport costs. 

Austrian companies are now facing having to pay the extra administrative costs and hurdles.

Many companies previously only active in the EU area are not prepared for the new export and import registrations and the bureaucratic requirements associated with them. 

The Austrian Trade Commissioner to the UK, Christian Kesberg, told Wiener Zeitung that UK customs agents are “in short supply and expensive.”

Companies that do not have their own branch in Great Britain may need to use customs agents to import goods into Austria. They are not easy to find and charge “exorbitant prices” due to the high demand. 

According to the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ), there is a “serious bottleneck” in the capacities of British customs agents caused by the volume of work that has increased fivefold overnight.

Mariana Kühnel, Deputy Secretary General of the Austrian Economic Chamber, says although conditions have ”fundamentally changed” for Austrian companies doing business in the UK, the United Kingdom will “remain an important trading partner for Austria in the future”. 

She says for smaller companies with little experience of doing business with non-EU “third countries”, the coronavirus crisis management has taken priority over Brexit preparations. Information, service and advice are available from the Chamber of Commerce's Brexit Infopoint

“We stand by the companies with words and deeds,” says Kühnel, explaining delays and incorrect declarations in freight traffic are among the “long-foreseen aftermath” of Great Britain's departure from the EU's internal market and customs union. 

There are indications that carriers are refusing to accept shipments for the UK. At the same time, Austrian branches in Great Britain are reporting delays of several days in delivering goods and primary materials from Austria, says Kühnel. 

However, in general, forecasts see the Austrian economy as being only marginally affected by the British exit from the EU; with estimates showing an annual decline of 0.05 percent of GDP.

According to the Chamber of Commerce, the current start-up difficulties in the movement of goods should be overcome in three to six months.

 

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FAR-RIGHT

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Radical Austrian nationalist Martin Sellner has been banned from entering Germany, it emerged on Tuesday, days after he was deported from Switzerland.

Germany issues entry ban to Austrian far-right activist Sellner

Sellner, a leader of Austria’s white pride Identitarian Movement, posted a video of himself on X, formerly Twitter, reading out a letter he said was from the city of Potsdam.

A spokeswoman for the city authorities confirmed to AFP that an EU citizen had been served with a “ban on their freedom of movement in Germany”.

The person can no longer enter or stay in Germany “with immediate effect” and could be stopped by police or deported if they try to enter the country, the spokeswoman said, declining to name the individual for privacy reasons.

READ ALSO: Who is Austria’s far-right figurehead banned across Europe?

“We have to show that the state is not powerless and will use its legitimate means,” Mike Schubert, the mayor of Potsdam, said in a statement.

Sellner caused an uproar in Germany after allegedly discussing the Identitarian concept of “remigration” with members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at a meeting in Potsdam in November.

Reports of the meeting sparked a huge wave of protests against the AfD, with tens of thousands of Germans attending demonstrations across the country.

READ ALSO:

Swiss police said Sunday they had prevented a hundred-strong far-right gathering due to be addressed by Sellner, adding that he had been arrested and deported.

The Saturday meeting had been organised by the far-right Junge Tat group, known for its anti-immigration and anti-Islamic views.

The group is also a proponent of the far-right white nationalist Great Replacement conspiracy theory espoused by Sellner’s Identitarian Movement.

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