Brexit red tape reality dawns on companies

New rules: A Toyota factory parking in Europe. The threat posed by post-Brexit rules to the UK operations of automakers such as Toyota could be existential. — AFP

LONDON: Specac Ltd makes laboratory equipment in the United Kingdom, selling more than 1,000 products worldwide and earning £1.8mil (US$2.3mil) exporting them tariff-free to the European Union (EU) each year.

Yet from January, Specac will be among the 120,000 exporters who have to prove the origin of their goods to qualify for duty-free access under any potential post-Brexit free-trade agreement. It’s a bureaucratic headache that’s about to menace £150bil worth of goods traded with the EU.