Global Britain’s cheerleaders may have to live with lasting damage to exports

It came as a little surprise to anyone in the UK’s logistics industry or at its ports when the government announced its decision to delay – for the second time in a little over six months – the introduction of post-Brexit import controls on goods arriving in Great Britain from the EU.

New checks on food and animal products imported from the continent will now not be brought in until 1 July 2022, a full year after they were originally intended to begin. The introduction of other requirements, including the paperwork that accompanies imports of food and animal products, has also been delayed from 1 October to next year.

Logistics firms, already suffering from a shortage of workers – including HGV drivers – and supply chain disruption, breathed a sigh of relief at the offer of more time. Particularly because the original implementation of extra controls on New Year’s Day would probably have piled further pressure on what is already shaping up to be a difficult Christmas season for traders, fraught with stock shortages and logistical challenges.

Yet there is a certain irony to the UK government’s decision, given that it turned down preBrexit requests from several business groups for a longer transition period, to allow firms to adapt to new trading requirements. Ministers blamed the pandemic for the postponements, but the required border control infrastructure is well behind schedule and wouldn’t have been ready on time.

The construction of inland border control posts, in places such as Dover and Holyhead, where there isn’t space for a checkpoint next to the terminal, is being overseen by the UK government, along with devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland. Plans for a huge customs clearance park on the outskirts of Dover have recently been significantly downgraded, while building work won’t begin until next spring. Meanwhile, the planning application for the inland border facility at Holyhead on Anglesey – a key staging post for trade between the Irish Republic and Britain – hasn’t yet been approved by Welsh government ministers.

Port operators building their own border facilities have roundly criticised the government’s handling of the funding process for the multimillion-pound infrastructure projects, where financial allocations were confirmed only a fortnight before Brexit. Many would argue there’s little point in implementing import checks before the required facilities are ready. After all, it is entirely in the UK’s gift to decide when to introduce them.

This raises the question: do delays to import checks matter?

Goods arriving from the EU, including food, still meet the same standards as when Britain was in the bloc, which means they haven’t suddenly become unsafe. That said, trade experts don’t consider it a sensible long-term policy to have a relatively open border, which could be targeted by smugglers.

Yet not all have welcomed the further delay, and one industry body, the Food and Drink Federation, came out swinging. It criticised the postponement, stressing how businesses had invested time and money to prepare for new procedures, only to see them kicked down the road.

Meanwhile, exports to the EU from the UK have been subject to controls since 1 January this year. British produce travelling to the EU risks being stopped at customs, and any paperwork mistakes could result in a shipment being turned back. This will not happen to goods travelling the other way, which would put UK goods at a disadvantage.

UK food and drink exports to the EU tumbled in the first six months of the year, and there has also been a fall in shipments of other goods including medicinal and pharmaceutical products. Some fear the complexities of post-Brexit trading with the continent may lead to firms permanently stopping EU exports, a fall that is unlikely to be offset by trade with countries such as Australia and China.

A lasting reduction in exports is surely not the goal of the proponents of “global Britain”, but it’s one that they may find themselves having to accept.