Brexit: UK may delay border checks on food coming from EU
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The UK is considering plans to postpone the start of border checks on food coming from the EU past April in a bid to better prepare businesses for post-Brexit changes.
New cabinet minister, and Boris Johnson’s former Brexit negotiator, Lord David Frost has asked Whitehall officials to draw up plans to change the timetable to ensure supply chains are not disrupted this summer.
The EU imposed complete border controls on goods entering the bloc from the UK on 1 January when the Brexit transition period ended, however Boris Johnson opted to have a transition period for goods coming the other way.
The new customs procedures caused extensive delays and product waste for some British exporters, with the seafood and meat industries particularly affected.
On 1 April the UK is due to impose checks on food products coming from the EU and on 1 July more inspections and full customs declarations will be required.
However, Bloomberg reports that the UK now wants to push these dates back to ensure the opening of hospitality from next month will not be hit by product shortages as a result of potential delays at the border.
“We will continue to work with business groups and the haulage industry to help them adapt to the new checks and new arrangements that are going to be put in place,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman said today.
It comes after Johnson decided to unilaterally extend the current Northern Ireland customs grace period for supermarket goods, medicines and parcels, due to end on March 31, for another six months until the end of October last week.
The move means there will be no new checks on these goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland until October in order to give businesses more time to adapt to the new rules.
Johnson’s decision to move without Brussels’ approval infuriated EU officials, who claim the UK has now broken the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, and are threatening to launch legal action.
Frost, who now acts as the de-facto Brexit minister, said the extension was needed to maintain stability in Northern Ireland.
Frost also said the EU had “significantly undermined cross-community confidence in the [Northern Ireland] Protocol” when it temporarily called to suspend it during a vaccines dispute with the UK in January and hit out at Brussels for maintaining “ill will” toward the UK over Brexit.
“As the government of the whole of our country we have to deal with that situation – one that remains fragile,” he said.
“That is why we have had to take some temporary operational steps to minimise disruption in Northern Ireland. They are lawful and are consistent with a progressive and good faith implementation of the Protocol.
“They are about protecting the everyday lives of people in Northern Ireland, making sure they can receive parcels and buy the usual groceries from the supermarket.”