Brexit puts major dent in UK beauty exports to EU says industry body

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
October 30, 2023

Brexit has been bad news for the UK beauty sector with as much as £850 million worth of exports being lost due to customs delays and higher costs for cross-border trade.

That’s according to a report from the British Beauty Council and Oxford Economics. It looked at exports both to the EU and the rest of the world (ROW) and found that the latter stayed steady while the former fell.

The study — reported by The Guardian and Bloomberg — said that small businesses that account for much of the trade in the sector have been “disproportionately damaged” by new post-Brexit trade barriers, as well as by changes to rules around EU workers in Britain causing a skills shortage.

While Covid also had an impact, there was a clear divergence between EU and ROW exports even when the pandemic’s effects were taken into account.

UK exports of cosmetics and personal care products to the EU rose between 2010 and Brexit vote year 2016 but have declined ever since. 

The Council’s CEO Millie Kendall told Bloomberg that “Covid is not the problem, Brexit is the problem. People have pulled out of territories.”

The study follows a British Chambers of Commerce report just a few days ago that found almost half of UK exporters struggling with the changes needed to keep exporting under the UK-EU trade deal.