Industry body calls for ‘urgent intervention to address the enormous challenges facing critical supply chains,’ as a result of Britain’s trade deal with the European Union and highlights an estimated 40,000 shortfall in customs agents.
Ministers face calls to intervene to overcome problems at the border after hauliers warned that exports from Britain to the European Union had dropped by more than two-thirds, The Times reports.
The newspaper said it emerged yesterday that the Road Haulage Association (RHA) had written to Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, urging an “urgent intervention to address the enormous challenges facing critical supply chains” as a result of Britain’s trade deal with the EU.
In the letter dated 1 February, which was initially reported by The Observer, Richard Burnett, the RHA’s chief executive, told Gove that exports last month to the EU had fallen by as much as 68% compared with the same month a year earlier. At its worst, one in five lorries bound for the EU was being turned back because of incorrect paperwork or because the driver could not produce proof of a negative Covid-19 test.
Although the trade agreement between London and Brussels is a zero-tariff deal, it has led to new non-tariff barriers to trade with the EU since the Brexit transition period finished at the end of December. Hauliers face a big increase in paperwork, including customs declarations, which are complicating trade and slowing the flow of goods. The letter highlighted an estimated 40,000 shortfall in customs agents.
“In the run up to 31 December, 2020 we had warned repeatedly that there was a lack of clarity over how the new arrangements would work and that hauliers, traders and manufacturers were confused, having had insufficient time to prepare,” Burnett wrote.
“Since transition, we have worked tirelessly to demonstrate the devastating consequences these changes are having but it is very clear that government are not doing enough to address them.”
He said that problems included a shortage of customs brokers, with only 10,000 in place compared with as many as 50,000 that it is estimated are needed, and accused the government of ignoring offers for a meeting with affected businesses. “For clarity, the current situation should not be considered a consequence of Covid,” he said. “If anything, the absence of the pandemic would have made it worse, because volumes would be greater.”
Boris Johnson has said that he is ready to override elements of the Brexit deal relating to Northern Ireland to prevent a trade barrier developing in the Irish Sea.
Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission, is due to travel to the UK for talks next week aimed at resolving the problems.
The Times quoted a spokesman for the government who said that it did not recognise the RHA’s exports figure. “Thanks to the hard work of hauliers and traders to prepare for change, disruption at the border has so far been minimal and freight movements are now close to normal levels, despite the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said.
Source: Lloyd´s
