International trade: Where is it heading?

Remember the time when everyone was talking about ‘The Missing Tomatoes’?; to be precise ‘the shortage of them in British Supermarkets?’

Remember the time when everyone was panicking about the ‘Brexit D day?’; to be precise ‘the day when goods from the EU could not enter the UK easily as they used to be?’

Ukraine-Russia war? China-USA Trade War? Covid?

And I am pretty sure you are still concerned about the food prices in the UK!

Why are all these things matters and how are they interconnected?

‘Globalisation’ is not new to any of you I am sure. Pre-Brexit, Pre-Covid, Pre-Ukraine-Russia War and Pre-China-USA Trade war; global supply chains were so vastly spread and diverse.

However, Covid changed things a lot and it is astonishing to realise that an invincible virus changed the whole world! The world is still not the same any more.

Global supply chains got disrupted and countries started to think of becoming self-sufficient or at least minimise their dependency on other countries.

If you think of the UK; things have got much worse for us, due to the additional pressure of Brexit. Extra Paperwork and restrictions caused by Brexit have disrupted the EU-UK supply chains and have added extra costs.

The US-China Trade war challenged the global factory status of China; hence causing shortages in the supply chains. The best example is the shortage of Semiconductors.

Then the Ukraine-Russia war; created shockwaves in the EU energy supply especially; Which prompted EU countries to visualise being Energy self-sufficient.

However, there are cost implications to these self-sufficient ambitions of the Western world.

It is not a secret that the EU labour costs are some of the highest in the world. And the production costs are high due to this. Also, the productivity of most of the EU countries is quite low.

Hence; being self-sufficient is not practical for the Western world.

Some manufacturers are already looking at moving into East Asia so that they could benefit from low energy costs on top of the low labour costs.

So then what the West could do?

The answer lies in the technological advancements to optimise productivity and support trade growth.

First, there is a need to utilise advanced technologies in IT to automate the Customs and Supply chain processes.

Secondly the easy availability of the data related to the shipments to the customs authorities; will lead to generating trusted trader schemes. These schemes will help the traders to move their goods without checks at the border.

In summary, the world is not the same any more due to Covid, the Ukraine-Russia war, the US-China trade war, and Brexit. All these factors add extra cost to our food bill! Yes, global inflation is a major factor too. But not the only one.

If you are an Importer of fresh vegetables, fresh fruits and dry goods from the EU and the rest of the world; CustomsGuru in partnership with Azarc, could bring a solution to automate your Import Customs Declarations, so that you could save money and time.

This process will work automatically 24/7 without needing human intervention.

We are offering a free trial for you.

Please get in touch with Vinnie Sumith, at vinnie@customsguru.co.uk to get more information about this process.