evidence: The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), signed in December 2020, set the terms of the post-Brexit trading relationship between the UK and EU. However, the application of the TCA remains ongoing, with the UK implementing physical inspections on imports from the EU from April 2024 and further declaration requirements from October 2024. [...] More stringent regulation of trade flows, the expectation of further regulatory tightening, and uncertainty over future trade policy may all have weighed on trade between the UK and EU over this period. Goods trade between EU countries and goods trade between the EU and the rest of the world grew more than a third between 2019 and 2022 in current prices. Meanwhile, goods trade between the UK and EU only grew by only around 10 per cent over the same period. An ONS survey of businesses from early 2024 indicates around half of exporting firms and two thirds of importing firms have reported extra costs associated with the changes in regulation since the end of the transition period. Similarly, the Bank of England Agents’ survey suggests EU trade frictions have weighed on export demand and may compound as new UK-EU regulations come into operation this year.c [...] g) Intra-EU goods trade is around 60 per cent higher than the EU’s trade in goods with the rest of the world. Intra-EU trade is broadly in line with EU trade in services with the rest of the world. See European Commission, Single market scoreboard, Integration of goods and services, February 2024.