Reading, UK: The planned charge of £43 per consignment for goods imported from the EU outlined in a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’s consultation document, is a “sting in the tail of a post-Brexit food inspection regime,” said Shane Brennan, chief executive, Cold Chain Federation.
Brexit is already fuelling inflation and many UK businesses which import food products from the EU will have to pay a special “Brexit tax” that will further drive up prices, particularly in smaller shops, he told the Observer newspaper today.
“This government tax for importing food goods from Europe comes on top of the costs of vets’ and customs agents’ fees, as well as increased supply chain costs, all arising from the post-Brexit realities of trying to service the UK. Forty-three pounds doesn’t sound like a lot but, given that we import thousands of consignments of food goods through Dover every day, it amounts to a border tax costing the industry millions. It is unavoidable that these costs will filter through to consumers,” he said.
The consultation document by Defra outlines a new charging regime in order to “recover operating costs for government-run border control posts in England”, many of which were built shortly after Brexit to conduct a regime of checks on goods of plant and animal origin that has never come into force because of a series of government U-turns.
The Brexit charge will affect food imports from the EU entering the country via government-run sites, such as the Dover border control posts which handle 90% of food imports from the EU. The consultation makes clear that commercial ports will be left to determine their own charges.
Brennan said: “The decision to impose a flat-rate fee means that a small business importing a few boxes of ham will pay the same amount as a multinational business importing a 40-tonne lorryload of chicken. This policy will contribute to the collapse of the multi-customer, multi-load haulage operations that small businesses rely on to service UK customers.”
Since the UK left the single market and customs union, its exporters have faced significant extra costs and bureaucracy when trying to send goods to the EU. Many small firms have given up exporting to the EU market altogether, while others have set up depots within the EU to get round the extra costs, paperwork, and tax charges that have hit their customers.
UK importers are about to feel similar negative effects of Brexit as the import tax charges come into force.
