Morrisons is the UK’s fourth largest supermarket group. On Thursday, a statement went out saying it anticipated delays at borders in the event of the UK failing to reach a trade agreement with the EU.
“We recognise there will be some delays at borders and we continue to look at alternatives to (the) Dover-Calais (route),” CEO David Potts told reporters after Morrisons reported first half results. “Our strong preference, because tariffs turn into inflation, is to have a no tariff deal.” However, Potts told uk.reuters.com that two thirds of what Morrisons sells is British, ‘so we think we’ll in a good position’.
An article on kalkinemedia.com states that in case of a no deal Brexit, almost half of the goods and services being imported from the Europe could attract extra duties or levies beginning January 2021, including food. The UK government estimates had suggested that total value of border tariffs could run into billions of pounds.
These extra charges will come at a difficult time, when people are losing jobs, businesses are struggling for survival, and the economy is shrinking in size. The British Retail Consortium is expecting prices of many food items including cucumber and olive oil to go up in such a scenario.
Credit rating agency Fitch has given an updated view on Brexit. It now expects that with limited progress on UK-EU trade talks, both might be moving on to the terms set out by the World Trade Organisation by 2021. Brian Coulton, chief economist, Fitch said that the agency will be lowering Britain’s forecast by roughly 2 per cent for the year 2021 as a result of a no-deal Brexit.
Britain currently has got an AA negative outlook by Fitch. This forecast will be revised on 25 September 2020.