The UK government has delayed introducing customs checks on EU goods entering the country for a fourth time since Brexit, a move which has been greeted with a mixed response from businesses and UK ports.
New import controls on food products originating from the EU were set to enter force in July this year, but ministers cited concern that going ahead would have caused further supply chain disruption and exacerbated inflation during the current cost-of-living crisis.
Announcing the U-turn, a government statement said that it would be “wrong to impose new administrative burdens and risk disruption at ports” in light of the ongoing global situation.
Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg indicated that the government was now reviewing its vision for what the checks could look like and that a new customs regime should not be expected until the end of 2023.
He added that the decision to delay and review could save British businesses up to £1 billion in annual costs.
UK ports have expressed disappointment at the move, with port operators concerned not only over the delay, but also the suggestion that the checks regime could also be changed.
Should the government eventually opt for a lighter system of checks, ports fear that border patrol facilities set-up in readiness for this July could be left standing empty and unused, despite the hefty cost of having prepared them.
Richard Ballantyne, CEO of the British Ports Association, commented: “Many UK port operators have built border control posts in preparation for post Brexit checks, and all were due to be ready.
“This announcement is a major policy change, meaning the facilities will effectively become white elephants, wasting millions of pounds of public and private funding, not to mention the huge effort there has been to get things ready in time.”
Ballantyne said that ports wanted clarity from government over whether they would be compensated for the construction of the new facilities, as well as the wiggle room for operators to “bulldozer the facilities and use the sites for other purposes” should they no longer be required.
The Major Ports Group said that it had invested £100 million of its own funding to set-up the new border posts, which it claimed could now be reduced to “highly bespoke white elephants” if they are not used.
Elsewhere, business has greeted news of the delay with relief.
Responding to the announcement, Cold Chain Federation CEO Shane Brennan said that pressing on with the customs controls would have “made a bad situation much worse” for firms amid “significant supply chain stress and inflationary costs.”
In their own responding statement, the Federation of Small Businesses said that the delay would avoid “yet another burden for small firms which are already wrestling with new trade rules and spiralling operating costs.”
Photo by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash
