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The Brexit stockpile is causing truck queues of 17 kilometers and delays of up to five hours in Calais, France, has emerged as hopes for a trade deal between the European Union and the Union and the United Kingdom fade.
Sources close to the president of the Hauts-de-France region said there had been 50% more heavy vehicles on the access roads to the French port and the Eurotunnel, which links France with Great Britain, in the last three weeks. .
“November and December are always busy months, but the main cause is extreme warehousing as companies are trying to get goods into the UK before January 1,” the source said.
“Normally we have about 6,000 trucks, but now there are about 9,000. It shows the extreme consequences of Brexit, whether there is a deal or not. Trucks have to slow down along the A16 back to Dunkirk with delays of up to 17 km. “
The delays at the English Channel crossing are causing serious problems in the UK. Honda and Jaguar have had to halt production temporarily due to parts shortages, and it emerged on Friday that Ikea had been beset with complaints over what it called “operational challenges” as shipments of its flat-pack furniture fell. they stop at clogged ports.
Eurotunnel said it believed delays on the British side would continue for the next three weeks. Its contingencies center on the worst-case scenario of a no-deal Brexit involving up to 7,000 trucks queuing in Kent.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday that they are unlikely to reach a post-Brexit trade deal on Sunday.
Negotiators from the EU and the UK are engaged in a final effort to reach a deal over the weekend amid mounting pessimism in Brussels and sharper rhetoric about a no-deal in the UK.
Negotiators will continue talking until Sunday, when the two sides have agreed to decide whether a deal is possible. On Friday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a no-deal outcome was “very, very likely” after EU leaders rejected his suggestion of individual meetings to break the deadlock.
Trucks line up along the highway near the port area of Calais, France, on December 3. Photograph: Christophe Petit Tesson / EPA
Talks remain stalled on fishing, a level playing field, guarantees of fair competition and how to enforce any agreement. But the focus has been narrowed in recent days to the “ratchet clause” that would allow the EU to impose tariffs on UK products if it raised its environmental, labor or consumer standards and the UK did not do the same.
Hauts-de-France leaders have been planning Brexit congestion since the first no-deal threat in 2018, when regional president Xavier Bertrand delivered a furious speech in the European parliament warning of a “dark scenario.”
French authorities calculated at the time that a two-minute delay at the port or the Eurotunnel walkway would generate queues of 27 km on each side, so slow queues of 17 km will be interpreted as an achievement in some sectors.
Queue traffic is also quickly caused by security incidents, with the continuing problem of migrants trying to board truck trailers.
The delays have been accompanied by long collapses in the Eurotunnel on the British side, caused in part by a reduction in the number of ferries due to Covid and the number of empty trucks returning to the mainland after their warehousing deliveries. Almost every day for the last two weeks, queues have formed, sometimes going back at least five miles.
“We are seeing several hundred trucks above forecasts on weekdays,” a Eurotunnel spokesman said. Recent figures from the company show that traffic increased 11 percent from last year in November.
Eurotunnel said the contingency plans, also modeled from 2018, meant they could move traffic to trains quickly. “We expect this to be the case for the next three weeks, with some decline as we approach Christmas and then decrease in the first week of January,” the spokesperson said.
“Many companies have said that their production during the first two weeks will stop due to the nervousness of what is coming, so that will have an impact and we also believe that the authorities are going to be lenient in the first days after January 1. “.
The drive to build up stocks is due to the fact that customs, regulatory and agri-food controls will be introduced with or without agreement because the UK is leaving the single market. More disruptions are expected over the weekend in Kent with a live test of Operation Brock, the UK’s no-deal traffic contingency plan for the M20, implemented on Friday night.
The UK hopes to mitigate the impact by gradually introducing controls over six months, but companies have raised concerns that customs software and special Brexit e-passports for international freight drivers entering Kent are not ready in time for Brexit day. – Guardian
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