Has anyone found an alternative ways to bring stuff from U.K. cheaply?
Before brexit I used to get my family in U.K. to send me stuff in a box (30kg) via DPD to my friends address in France for £18 via DPD. However, this is not economically viable due to import & vat as I once had to pay over €200 to release my box and maybe the French incorrectly ripped me off, but that’s another story.
Highly unlikely the French "ripped you off", this is Brexit, it's what some people in the UK voted for.
Cheapest way would be to take an Easy Jet flight over and bring some stuff in your suitcase, just be careful of the limits of what you can bring in though (but it's not very likely you would be stopped at customs in CH)
The thing I don’t understand is that I thought the U.K. negotiated a trade deal with the EU, so does that mean the deal only applies to companies and not individuals? Why did we even bother with the deal, how did this benefit U.K. instead of resorting to the WTO deal?
The trade deal is not what we had in terms of trade with the (rest of the) EU before Brexit. What has been negotiated in some areas is better than WTO. The rest is on WTO terms.
Don’t ask me, ask (get-it-done) Boris.
Bojo negotiated some deals for commercial trade, but not free trade. Companies now have to fill in loads of paperwork and it is extremely difficult, I have personal experience of this from both directions (importing UK goods into CH, now from France to the UK).
But personal stuff is way outside these deals. People against Brexit constantly warned about these problems and we were accused of spreading "Project Fear". But, as I said, this is just one part of the negative results of Brexit.
Gone through something similar and came to the conclusion that it's pointless to ship anything from the UK.
If you can, source it in Germany and send to a package depot on the border. If you can't, if it's something only available in the UK, ridiculous as it seems, go over and bring it back.
Covid, inflation and the war are keeping this off the front pages, but UK exports must be suffering.
You would have thought that U.K. economy should be doing very bad but the GBP has remained stable, which doesn’t make sense what’s really going on with the real economy of U.K.
Brexit was mostly to control immigration and sovereignty but we tend to do whatever the US & EU tells us to do and immigration is a smoke screen.
[JackieH has entered the chat]
Where have you been for the past five years......
If WTO terms are so great why do you thing every WTO member is busy negotiating trade deals?
You might want to check with Boris as he does not seem to have got that memo.
Friends bring stuff for me when they visit. They bring more when they drive than when they fly.
Nope!
Nothing to do with Brexit.
I have stuff sent direct from the UK to Switzerland mainly using DHL without any problem at all. Many shops have deals with courier services and you just pay clearance and duty (if any) when it arrives, and it's certainly cheaper than buying an Easyjet ticket! It's what I did pre-Brexit and what I do now and there is no difference at all.
I don't know what you're buying but many businesses now have a depot in the EU and ship from there to customers in the EU. In my case, if it's worth it I have it sent to Italy, where our local supermarket has a service to receive parcels for a € 1.50 cost.
There is still https://www.britshop.ch/
Stuff arrives within a day or two, all the brit grub you could want
britshcornershop.com
Tie in with Marks and sparks, and waitrose. GB prices. You can do up to 30 kilos.
'ave a nice day y'all
GREG
I would avoid them. Had a bad experience and the customer service was terrible.
Only ever been good for me
but.....
good day y'all
GREG