UK exports of clothing and footwear to the EU have dived since Brexit , according to a new study that shows the extent to which complex regulations and red tape at the border have deterred firms from sending goods across the Channel. Exports of clothing and footwear sold to EU countries have fallen from £7.4bn in 2019 to £2.
7bn in 2023, helping fuel an 18% slump in sales of all non-food goods exports to countries covered by the EU single market, according to the consultancy Retail Economics and online marketplace Tradebyte. The report said the decline meant British brands and retailers have seen sales to the EU plummet since Brexit, despite a flourishing European e-commerce market. The only sectors to increase export sales over the same period were health and beauty, and DIY and gardening, offsetting some of the fall from clothing and footwear.
Many of the worst affected were small and medium-sized businesses, which faced a larger relative burden from red tape than multinational firms. One of the report’s authors, Richard Lim, head of Retail Economics , said some of the fall was simply down to a change in trade routes. UK firms that previously repackaged imports of goods made in Asia for sale in the EU have now reorganised their supply chains, by setting up offices inside the single market to bypass border regulations.
However, red tape has forced many producers making apparel in the UK to move manufacturing to an EU country, at a cost to UK skills and jobs. In one instan.
