The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) signed between Britain and the European Union in 2020, which envisaged allowing tariff-free trade with the EU after Brexit took effect, has made it difficult for SMEs to increase sales and grow their business. Revealing this, a recently-published British Chambers of Commerce survey of more than 1,168 businesses says that while 56% of the SMEs encounter difficulties adapting to the new trading rules, around 44% face challenges in acquiring their employees’ visas. Even simple importing of raw materials or spare parts to fix broken machines from the EU has become a major time-consuming nightmare for SMEs, it added.
