London, UK: Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has finally confirmed that the government is to rethink plans to introduce physical checks on fresh food imported from the European Union, due to start in July.
Press reports suggest that the plans for physical checks are being scrapped altogether, not delayed. The government’s strategy is to have a digitised border regime in place by late 2023 which will render the vast majority of physical checks unnecessary.
The inspections have been repeatedly delayed since the UK left the EU at the end of 2020 amid concerns that the infrastructure was not in place to carry out the checks and that it would increase delays and costs to consumers.
Rees-Mogg argued that it would be wrong to go ahead with this post-Brexit red tape, pointing to rising energy prices and the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on supply chains.
He said: “Today’s decision will allow British businesses to focus on their recovery from the pandemic, navigate global supply chain issues and ensure that new costs are not passed on to consumers.
“It’s vital that we have the right import controls regime in place, so we’ll now be working with industry to review these remaining controls so that they best suit the UK’s own interests.
“We want the process for importing goods from the EU to be safe, secure and efficient and we want to harness innovative new technologies to streamline processes and reduce frictions. It’s precisely because of Brexit that we’re able to build this UK-focussed system”.
Shane Brennan, chief executive, Cold Chain Federation said: “We very much welcome this decision – despite all the hard work preparing it was clear that the July vet controls would have had a devastating effect on the ability of our food businesses to import goods that UK consumers want.
“We are dealing with significant supply chain stress and inflationary costs this year and this would have made a bad situation much worse.
“However what is most positive is the decision not to simply delay again, but to follow through on the commitment to rethink the way these controls work.
“What we have learnt is that no amount of preparation time can solve the fundamental harm that complex, load by load paperwork processes have on ability and willingness to trade. So we can now take the time available to build new, better ways to implement these rules and meet the promise of establishing the most innovative border in the world for our food traders.”
Duncan Buchanan, RHA policy director, England and Wales, said: “This is a major shift in mindset by the Government. It is focusing on what is needed for the border rather than replicating systems from the last century. It is disappointing that so many will have wasted so much effort and resource to comply with the new rules and processes that were being demanded.
“It will take a little while to digest the full implication of this. It is the “what’s next” that will be vital for all to work on in industry and across government.”
Executive director for the RHA, Rod McKenzie, has previously outlined on BBC News how the situation can be resolved with a “light touch” approach between the UK and the EU on current and future checks.
Sarah Laouadi, Logistics UK’s head of international policy, said: “Businesses need stability, clarity and certainty which constant delays and changes to the nature of future post-Brexit checks do not deliver. While we understand the government’s reasoning behind the decision today – aligning the checks with its 2025 Border Strategy to maximise optimisation and simplification of the new processes – it should not have taken years of wavering on the nature of checks for these goods and changing deadlines for their implementation.
“The government’s wavering approach comes at the cost of logistics businesses who have invested time and money preparing for the introduction of checks – that were postponed four times over the years – before the decision to take a different approach was reached today.
“Logistics UK is urging the government to make a clear – and final – commitment to a process and a deadline and ensure the necessary facilities, staff and processes are in place and ready to cope with the volume and patterns of trade by that deadline. Logistics UK stands ready to commit its expertise to help design a revised action plan and timetable that will not have to be shifted again
“Going forward, we need to see closer monitoring of progress towards readiness for the government’s new approach, with review points, intermediary milestones and an alert system that triggers the allocation of extra government resources when a work package appears not to be on track.”
“Logistics businesses are resilient and flexible; they stand ready to keep goods moving to and from the UK but need certainty to continue to trade effectively with the EU in the future.”
Richard Ballantyne, chief executive of the British Ports Association, said: “This is quite an amazing development to say the least! 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.
“Most ports will need to recoup some of their construction and operating costs for their infrastructure and this is traditionally done through levying a charge on importers. Ports have been recruiting staff to operate the facilities but now this needs to stop.
“We are therefore urgently seeking clarification from policy makers if there will be any type of financial assistance or compensation for ports and also if operators can start to bulldozer the facilities and use the sites for other purposes.”
Robert Keen, director general, Britsh International Freight Association, said: “BIFA interprets this pause to be part of a much bigger picture, that will encompass a review of all frontier policies for all of the UK’s trade with not just the EU, but the rest of world.”
The association anticipates that this will result in the introduction of new policies applicable to all of the UK’s international trade.
“2023 may be a significant date because that is when CDS, the system that is replacing CHIEF for processing customs entries, is meant to be fully operational for both imports and exports.“In 2020, BIFA stated that within the overall Border Operating Model, a pattern was emerging of announcements with attention-grabbing headlines, but minimal detail that didn’t appear to have been thought through,” Keen said.
“Whilst the new systems were announced, consultation with the trade was minimal and some of the practicalities of implementing the new systems in regards to freight forwarding, and other supply chain responsibilities, as well as document flows, did not appear to have been taken into account.
“We can only hope that those in power in Whitehall have learnt from this oversight although yesterday’s announcement raises many questions about future trade policy and procedures, which need to be answered by government.”
