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“Prepare for the new formalities” or the UK is in danger of the roads in the English county of Kent getting clogged with lines of around 7,000 trucks and their goods taking up to two days to enter European territory, for transport or via Eurotunnel, warned the British government.
In a letter sent to representatives of the logistics sector and transport companies, seen by the main British media, Minister Michael Gove – responsible for the implementation of the United Kingdom’s exit agreement from the European Union – defended that “it is essential that operators commercial act now ”to avoid what the executive considers“ the worst possible scenario ”, starting on January 1, 2021.
Under the Brexit deal, the UK officially left the EU on January 31, but remains part of the single market and the customs union until the last day of this year. London and Brussels are in negotiations to close a new economic and political partnership before the end of the so-called transition period, but Gove says the preparation that needs to be done does not depend on the outcome of that process.
Here are the key parts of Gove’s letter to the industry warning of 7,000 truck queues in the worst case reasonable pic.twitter.com/MBGMXMevUL
– lisa o’carroll (@lisaocarroll) September 23, 2020
“The biggest potential cause of disruption is that operators are not prepared for the controls implemented by the EU member states as of January 1,” warned the leader of the Council of Ministers.
“Regardless of the outcome of the negotiations between the UK and the EU, traders will face new controls and customs procedures. If they do not comply with the necessary documentation, their products will be blocked from entering the EU and there will be riots, “he added, quoted by Reuters.
According to Downing Street, who clarified that he is not making estimates, but looking at the “worst case scenario”, these disturbances can affect up to 70% of the vehicles that currently transport goods through the Eurotunnel, which connects England with France. , or from the ports of Dover and Folkestone, in southeastern England, to other parts of the continent.
The Government anticipates that these delays in Kent will start to occur in the first two weeks of January and will continue or worsen for at least the next three months.
Responsibility?
Some representatives of the transport sector fear, however, that this letter from Gove is an instrument for the government of Boris Johnson to hold operators – and the EU – responsible for a predictable scenario of chaos at border crossings.
The UK Logistics union, the Port of Dover authorities and the Rail Transport Association (RHA) have even accused the Conservative executive of “not providing solutions” to the problems they have been warning about themselves.
“We have constantly warned the Government that there will be delays at the ports, but they have not committed to looking for solutions together with the sector,” laments Richard Burnett, executive director of RHA, quoted by The Guardian.
“Operators need more than 50,000 customs brokers to cope with the mountain of paperwork that will be required after the transition, but government support for the recruitment and training of supplementary personnel is terribly inadequate,” he added.
The negotiations between London and the 27 are, at this point, in their most negative and critical phase.
In addition to the reluctance of the parties to give up the main limits they want to impose, the EU has harshly criticized the Johnson government for wanting to pass a law in Parliament that eliminates parts of the withdrawal agreement and frees the UK from legal commitments and politicians ratified in international treaty.
If the British do not abandon this legislation, whose decisive parliamentary vote is due to begin early next week, the European Commission has already threatened to take the British executive and Brexit to court.
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