Tell that to my welder friend going to fix a welding job in France held up for 9 hrs with the French border people sitting around reading the paper drinking coffee fresh food delivered walking past saying Brexit is good and laughing.
B Rigbys (game dealer) big van was held for 11hrs same MO
Quite, it’s a British firm going to try and fix something in France. We voted to leave the EU. We chose to limit freedom of movement. We chose to have a hard border. We chose to impose visas on overseas workers etc etc.
It has feck all to do with EU. The EU wanted us to remain. Even when we chose to leave they wanted us to be part the extended free trade area (EFTA) but our government that we voted in chose to not take that option. Boris threw his toys out and got rid of Therasa May.
We were sold a pack of lies by a group of right wing politicians and their chronies who have made a fortune out of shorting sterling and our now laughing all the way to Coutts bank as lack of competition allows prices to rise inexorably upwards.
Even the Torygraph has realised that Brexit was a huge mistake.
Reason why your mates got held up when travelling over to do a welding job, is that they were travelling to do work. This is specifically prohibited in the oven ready withdrawal agreement that Boris “negotiated” and signed on our behalf.
You can only travel to Europe for holiday, or in a professional capacity to enter into agreements or supervise. As soon as it comes to work - it depends on the EU country, but you need a work visa to do “work”.
And their van would have been full of welding kit. This would almost certainly have been valued at well above personal limits. So needs to be declared with import / VAT etc being paid.
I have seen exactly the same issues with other businesses, even those with operations both sides of the channel. No longer can we load up the van with goods, equipment and guys and drive to the other end of Europe and do a job.
It is what the UK government insisted upon. We voted them in. No wonder French customs **** themselves laughing. It’s Turkeys voting for Christmas.
Europe is now as remote and as difficult to work with as just about every other country in the world. You cannot just turn up in the US and work in the US - you need a Green Card.