![image: [ The loss of duty-free sales will cost jobs, the report warns ]](/olmedia/60000/images/_60223_duty300.jpg)
The Centre for Economics and Business Research also concludes that the changes will add £14 to the cost of foreign trips within Europe.
The centre concludes that across Europe up to 130,000 jobs will be lost - more than half in Britain. They will disappear in a range of trades ranging from retail to whisky distilling, it warns.
The CEBR's Chief Executive, Doug McWilliams, said Britain would be hit twice by the abolition.
"We are an island race and have to travel by ferry or plane if we want to get away. We produce one of the big commodities that gets sold at duty free which is Scotch whisky."
Organisations including the Duty Free Confederation and P&O Ferries want the duty free axe to be lifted or postponed. They argue that the travel industry needs time to prepare for the loss of income.
But the European Union has already postponed the abolition once - in 1992 when the sale was given a seven-year reprieve. That deadline expires in June, 1999.
Battle on to save duty-free
(05 Dec 97 | UK)
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