For Britain’s Chemical Industry, Brexit’s Red Tape Is Just Beginning

For Britain’s Chemical Industry, Brexit’s Red Tape Is Just Beginning

BrexitBritain and E.U. Reach Deal5 Things to KnowPost-Brexit Trade DealAlready Out of Date?For One British Industry, Brexit's Red Tape Is Just BeginningChemical companies, facing costly new regulations and extra tariffs, are looking to the continent.The harbor in Hull, England, a few miles from Teal & Mackrill, which uses chemicals to make marine paint and other special paint products. Brexit is causing many chemical companies to reconsider their operations in Britain. Credit...Mary Turner for The New York TimesBy Stanley ReedFor nearly a century the firm of Teal & Mackrill in the port city of Hull in northeast England has made paints for special applications, like fishing trawlers and factory floors. It produces marine paint, for example, with ingredients to prevent barnacles from encrusting hulls.Now in a little-noticed consequence of the new Brexit trade deal, the company is facing real concerns about its future. Geoff Mackrill, the third member of his family to helm the company, said that growing British regulatory burdens on chemicals may mean that eventually he won't be able to obtain some of the additives that make his paints distinctive.“The worry is that some of those materials that we use,” he said, “may become unavailable because of those costs.”It is