London, UK: Haulage companies face having to process a “mountain” of safety and security declarations post-Brexit after British negotiators rejected participation in the “safety and security zone”.
According to an article in the Telegraph, British negotiators ignored industry requests to seek vital security waivers from the EU, needed to smooth cross-channel freight after Brexit, despite accepting that this would significantly increase border delays. As a result the UK will not seek a waiver for safety and security declarations for all goods coming/going from the UK to the EU and vice versa.
Trade bodies, including the Freight Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association, were informed of the decision last week by the HMRC’s Border Delivery Group.
Pauline Bastidon, FTA’s head of European policy, said: “This is one of the most significant announcements made in the last two weeks in relation to requirements at the end of the transition period: safety and security declarations will be required for UK-EU-UK trade, regardless of whether there is an agreement in place at the end of the year.”
Peter Foster, who wrote the Telegraph article, points out that the safety and security declaration form needed for exit has 31 items, while the form for inbound has 45 items. The estimated cost is £15 per shipment – one 40ft container could contain “hundreds” of shipments. Critically, the legal responsibility is on the haulier, not the exporter.
