BERLIN, June 22 (Xinhua) -- The United Kingdom's (UK) departure from the European Union (EU) has left "deep economic traces in Germany," the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) said Thursday.
DIHK Chief Executive of Foreign Trade Volker Treier said it was "an economic disaster for both sides of the channel," adding that there is still considerable planning and legal uncertainty for German companies doing business in the UK.
The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said that although the trade volume between the UK and Germany grew 14.1 percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, to 111.0 billion euros (122 billion U.S. dollars), it has never reached pre-Brexit levels again.
In 2015, the year before the Brexit referendum, the United Kingdom was still Germany's fifth-largest trading partner. Last year, the UK dropped to 11th place, and was no longer among Germany's top 10 trading partners.
According to a recent survey by the German-British Chamber of Industry and Commerce, only 23 percent of German companies in the United Kingdom expected the UK economy to perform better in the next 12 months. Meanwhile, 37 percent expected it to perform worse.
"The shortage of skills, partly as a result of the new immigration rules, is the largest challenge for companies, with other administrative hurdles as a result of Brexit ranking second," the survey found.
New rules that will soon come into effect, such as expanded import controls, will "create persistent uncertainty," said Niels Beuck from the German Freight Forwarding and Logistics Association.
"In the upcoming review of the EU-UK trade agreement, both sides should agree on deepening institutional cooperation," Treier said. (1 euro = 1.10 U.S. dollars)
