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The British government is working with France in an attempt to find a way to lift the border closures that have tangled one of Europe’s most important trade routes just days before the cliff edge of Brexit.
Much of the world closed its borders to the UK in recent days after the UK identified a new highly infectious strain of coronavirus.
“We speak with our colleagues in France constantly on a variety of topics and that work has been underway for the past 24 hours and we will continue today,” British Home Secretary Priti Patel told Sky News this morning.
When asked if there would be a resolution today, Ms. Patel said: “We are working towards a resolution. It is in our interest to both ensure that we have flow. We will see what materializes today.”
“You will hear later today about developments on the French freight ban.”
The discovery of the new strain, just months before vaccines are expected to become widely available, sowed a new panic in a pandemic that has killed around 1.7 million people worldwide and more than 67,000. in Great Britain.
As financial markets tumbled, truck drivers stranded near the Port of Dover said they just wanted to get home in time for Christmas.
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Trucks are stuck in long lines heading to and from the port of Dover on England’s south coast, as companies try to store goods before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.
“We see people starting to think a little differently about their supply chain … you can see some companies starting to move away from Dover,” said Maggie Simpson, CEO of the Rail Freight Group trade body.
Since the Brexit referendum in 2016, there has been an increase in goods picked up by freight at ports further north along England’s east coast, he said.
With the UK effectively quarantined from Covid just nine days before it exits informal EU membership, one of the biggest changes in post-WWII British history, some shoppers stripped supermarket shelves.
The trading conditions came despite repeated calls not to buy in panic. Priti Patel said today that “no one should worry about supermarket supplies, there is a lot of food.”
Yesterday, Sainsbury’s warned that the gaps will start to appear on British supermarket shelves within days if transport links with mainland Europe are not quickly reestablished.
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