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Some book trade leaders have expressed relief that the "nightmare" scenario of a no-deal scenario for post-Brexit trade has been averted—but a new burden of bureaucracy is descending on the industry, while many questions for the future remain unanswered.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Christmas Eve (24th December) that a last-minute trade agreement had been struck with the European Union, described as a comprehensive Canada-style free trade deal, enabling UK goods to be sold without tariffs and quotas in the EU market. MPs voted to approve the deal in a vote conducted before the end of the year.
Publishers Association chief executive Stephen Lotinga said: “The Brexit trade deal is welcome and infinitely preferable to the chaos that 'no deal' would have caused. Most importantly, there will be no tariffs or quotas for books and journals, an agreement has been reached on free movement of data and UK researchers will be able to participate in the Horizon Europe research programme.
“However, the deal is far from perfect and being outside the customs union and single market will inevitably lead to complexities and costs for publishers trading with our largest export market.
“Of greatest concern to us is intellectual property. Whilst the trade deal addressed a number of issues, it did not resolve the aspects of copyright which enable authors and publishers to control the distribution of their work. The government has said it will now consult on this, but we remain very concerned that if they get it wrong it would be enormously damaging to the whole industry and the territorial rights which underpin it.”
The Society of Authors also expressed concern on copyright, saying: "Preservation of strong intellectual property and copyright standards remains a further concern for SoA members and other freelances. We are cautiously optimistic that the agreement maintains commitments from both the UK and EU to World Intellectual Property Organisation Treaties and TRIPS Agreement standards but we are still concerned about the UK government’s lack of support for the EU Copyright Directive. The UK government supported and shaped the directive as an EU member. We will be pushing for the government to meet or beat these standards as part of its domestic Levelling Up agenda."
The SoA said that early indications in the draft agreement "suggest that Brexit will mean new barriers and bureaucracy for many SoA members and other creative freelances seeking to visit and/or work on the continent...The end to freedom of movement means that many of our members will have to negotiate complicated visa and work permit regimes before travelling to EU countries, and be aware of the extent of any potentially varying exclusions that may apply to them."
Isobel Dixon, president of the Association of Authors Agents, also said the organisation would be keeping "a close eye on copyright discussions in the months ahead" since the government is not implementing the EU Copyright Directive.
Dixon foresaw "much time will be consumed in further consultation and scrutiny as we work out the practical implications, with no doubt further wrangling, over the months, even the years, ahead." She said: "Crucially we need to maintain a smoothy functioning book supply chain, with the UK as the world's biggest exporter of books and Europe being the biggest single market for those books—and we still have to see how well the flow to and from Ireland works, for example. Regarding exports and imports, the Intellectual Property Office has indicated that the government will run a consultation on exhaustion of IP/"first resale rights" in this first quarter, since we will not now have a joint regional exhaustion regime with the EU as in the past. The AAA will continue to make clear that we do not want to move to an international exhaustion system."
Dixon added: "There are questions to consider regarding what new visa requirements might mean for longer writers' residencies or creative writing teaching in Europe. We have yet to understand how new proposals might attempt to compensate for the loss of participation in the Erasmus student programme and for Creative Europe funding, especially regarding publishing translated work in the UK. On a practical level too, there will be additional Carnet paperwork involved in the shipping of book samples to European trade fairs—when those are again possible—a micro-example of administration hassle playing out on a larger scale elsewhere."
Charlie Redmayne, HarperCollins UK c e.o., was upbeat at the striking of an agreement, saying: "It is a huge relief that a trade deal was done which was critical for our whole economy. There will undoubtedly be some initial challenges as we all get used to new restrictions and administration but hopefully these will iron themselves out. We don’t anticipate any real impact on HarperCollins titles in the short term as we were well prepared for all scenarios."
DK c.e.o. Carsten Coesfeld also spoke of his "relief" that the UK finally has a Brexit deal with zero tariffs, saying that despite the red tape that would be introduced, "here at DK, our careful planning means we are in the best possible position to ensure that our books will continue to be shipped and delivered to our readers".
But Pan Macmillan m.d. Anthony Forbes Watson sounded a more sombre note, saying: "Everyone has always known that deal or no deal, we would all end up economically worse off as a result of Brexit. In the context of damage limitation, it is therefore relatively good news that a deal has been arrived at, rather than no deal. That said, any form of Brexit throws up many complications, some of which may only become apparent with time, and for the moment we anticipate additional bureaucracy in the supply chain including paperwork at the borders. We have planned for these eventualities and are very grateful to our partners for their collaboration. We are as ready for Brexit as we can be."
At the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), chief executive Bridget Shine said: “After four and a half years of uncertainty and concern, it is good to have some clarity on arrangements from 1st January. Businesses have prepared for the end of the UK’s transition from the EU as best they could, but the last-minute nature of the deal leaves very little time for the potential impacts of the changes to be worked through. On top of all the Covid-related disruption to imports and exports, the first few months of the year are likely to be tough. But with agreement now reached and a Covid vaccine rolling out, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel. We saw again in 2020 that independent publishers are resilient and resourceful in the face of immense change, and we have no doubt they will rise to the challenges that remain in 2021.”
But among indie publishers contacted by The Bookseller, the mood was bleak.
Kevin Duffy of Bluemoose noted: "I can't think of anything beneficial to accrue from distancing ourselves from our friends in Europe, especially after a particularly nasty divorce. We don't really know what the deal is for publishers yet, but from an indy perspective the costs of isolating ourselves from the international community will be high in terms of getting authors over into the UK for festivals and events, especially as England doesn't seem to be that welcoming of other peoples and cultures at the moment.'
Eloise Millar of Galley Beggar Press described the current situation like "being sent into a maze in a blindfold". She said: "It's very hard to know what we're going to be facing—and [that is] one more unknown, on top of Covid. 2021 is very hard to plan or predict—and the government is to blame for so much of this uncertainty." Her Galley Beggar co-founder Sam Jordison described the trade deal as "better than no deal—but only in the sense that having your beloved dog butchered in front of you is better than losing your whole family". He predicted: "This paper-thin deal is only the beginning of ongoing cycles of negotiation, renegotiation and uncertainty. It will remain very difficult to plan in the medium and long term. In the short term, meanwhile, there is only pain. It's going to be harder to sell books in Europe, harder to print in Europe (harder to print in the UK too, as it's not as if our printers don't really on imports) harder to get authors to events in Europe... It's going to be harder to sell and buy foreign rights too. Not just because of the increased paperwork and expenses, but also because of the tremendous loss of goodwill. The UK has shown itself to be an unreliable and absurd trading partner and that reflects on all of us."