London, UK: The logistics industry has warned that supply chains could suffer if the government continues to take a hardline approach with the EU over checks to goods and the handling of Northern Ireland.
The warning follows Lord David Frost’s move to unilaterally extend grace periods for implementing new arrangements for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Lord Frost said that the UK’s unilateral move to extend grace periods on border checks was legal under the Brexit trade deal. The UK has said it will delay new checks on goods arriving into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, agreed as part of the UK’s withdrawal deal. However, the EU disputes this, and is preparing to launch a legal challenge.
EU Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič has called it a “violation” of the part of the deal relating to Northern Ireland and said legal action was imminent.
Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation told the Financial Times: “Adopting a ‘madman’ negotiating strategy might be great politics, but it’s terrible for food supply chains. The next few months are make or break for the food industry. A strong recovery from lockdown is vital and supply chain instability would shatter fragile confidence,” he said.
Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said: “It doesn’t make sense Frost taking a verbal hardline with Brussels, and then taking a light-touch approach to enforcing the new UK border — unless you’ve got good and trusting dialogue between the two parties, which clearly we haven’t,” he said.
