Today’s (11 August) trade news includes further evidence that the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) is continuing to cause disruption for cross-border travel in Europe.
There’s also more striking rhetoric from US President Donald Trump on the Strait of Hormuz, and an update from the UK government regarding an anti-dumping investigation on imports of a synthetic plastic resin.
EES travel travails
Passenger data provided to the FT by airport intelligence firm Qsensor shows that wait times at some of Europe’s busiest airports has doubled since the introduction of EES.
Maximum wait times at Amsterdam and Frankfurt airports have risen to 120 minutes this year, up from 80 and 60 in 2026 respectively.
The new EU border system aims to track travellers entering and leaving the bloc, but its rollout has been characterised by delays and problems with both its software and hardware.
Many airports have recently taken to forgoing certain EES checks to ease passenger flow. However, the flexibility to do this, afforded by the EU to member states, is currently due to come to an end in September.
An EU spokesperson said that the system is largely working as intended, with the average time needed for EES registration being 70 seconds, with “very clear security benefits” to it.
However, the glitches have attracted criticisms from the aviation industry, with Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary calling it “mis-designed”.
“Only the Europeans would invent shit like this,” he said last month.
Ahead of its introduction, concerns were also raised about the impact of EES on UK-EU trade, particularly the impact of delays at key border crossings such as the Port of Dover.
Trump claims control of Hormuz
After Iran issued a significant list of demands to the US for a full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz over the weekend, Trump yesterday (10 August) responded by claiming his country had “100%” control of the waterway. He issued his own demand for Tehran to pay reparations for decades of deaths of US soldiers and Iranian protesters.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, he said:
“Now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous, as led initially by Gen Soleimani, including the families of those killed on the USS Cole, and thousands of others killed in combat.”
Talking to reporters, including CNBC, from outside the Oval Office, he said that the strait is “open now” and that the US was “the only one that has control”. He also said the US had cleared the passage of Iranian mines, saying the US was now establishing a “steel wall” to protect commercial traffic.
“They will, on occasion, drop a mine, and we find the mine,” he said.
However, despite his hopes of reassuring the shipping industry that the US blockade can secure safe passage through the waterway, data from Kpler reported in Reuters showed that only six vessels transited the strait on Monday, down from a previous 10-day average of 11.
Trade remedy notice: S-PVC
The UK Trade Remedies Authority yesterday published a notice to indicate that imports of suspension polyvinyl chloride (S-PVC) originating from China, Mexico and South Korea will be registered by HMRC from today onwards.
The commodity is currently subject to an anti-dumping investigation, and a duty may be applied to imports of it, pending the results of this.
The government notes that should a “definitive remedy” be established for the registered imports of the synthetic plastic resin, “duties may be payable from a date up to 90 days preceding the implementation of any provisional remedy”.
Also in the trade news today
- A monthly survey from Barclays indicates that UK consumer spending hit a two-year high in July on the back of the World Cup and holiday season
- China is imposing a 54% duty on US pecans ahead of an upcoming Xi-Trump summit, according to Bloomberg
- The government has announced a new Trade Commissioner for North America – Alex Milward
Yesterday in trade
- We previewed a new report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Trade & Investment on the UK’s ‘Trade Triangle’ of long-term growth strategies
- New EU relations minister Hamish Falconer called for “renewed pace” in the UK’s post-Brexit ‘reset’ talks
- Tehran made significant demands of the US for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz
