UK exports to the European Union plummeted 40.7 percent in January, the first month of real Brexit, in what is now the largest decline in British trade in more than 20 years. The impact on imports is slightly less, with a reduction of 28.8 per cent, but only because in December companies and supermarkets had stocked up in view of a “no deal”. Figures released by the UK’s Bureau of National Statistics yesterday put the effects of the UK’s exit from the EU and the single market for the first time in black and white. Despite a free trade agreement that avoided tariffs and quotas, businesses are faced with bureaucracy, border controls and customs costs.
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