It does sound like trade between UK and European countries has become much more difficult than between UK and the rest of the world, hopefully things will settle down soon.
I buy spares for our UK built caravan and get them shipped over to Australia. Typically stuff arrives between 8 -14 days of order. Covid has slowed some things down but not overly much.
I pay no VAT nor should anyone outside the UK but I do have to pay GST (local Aussie VAT equivalent) albeit a more reasonable 10%.
It used to be that GST and customs import duty was only charged if the total value of goods bought within a year was over $1000AUD.
Now it is supposedly levied on all transactions but this seems a bit hit and miss.
If the value of goods exceeds $1000 AUD I most certainly will incur import duties and GST is then charged on the value of the goods plus the shipping cost which starts to hurt a bit!
