Thread by @Joe_Mayes

Scoop: Tesla and Heinz are among the household names facing a Brexit crisis at year-end due to a shortage of customs agents in the U.K. 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Both companies have struggled to find contractors who can process their post-Brexit paperwork, with the economy facing hundreds of millions of extra customs declarations annually 2/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Without a solution, they won't be able to legally move goods between Britain and the EU from 2021, even if there's a free-trade deal. Here's Heinz's statement 3/

The problem of a shortage of customs agents has been raised regularly by the logistics industry. They say 50,000 extra are needed - and the coronavirus pandemic has set back the recruitment drive 4/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

.@RachelReevesMP asked Michael Gove about the shortage in Parliament this week. How much government funding has been spent on training? How many agents have been trained? Gove did not give a figure 5/

Gove was then pressed on it again by Labour MP Nick Smith @BlaenauGwentMP, and Gove gave a very brief response - `It's a matter for the market'. So government seemingly washing its hands... 6/

HMRC did not give me a figure when I contacted them last night. Emma Churchill, the civil servant running the border preparations, told a select cttee earlier this month that 20,000 training courses have been taken... 7/

But the industry criticism is that many of these courses have been taken by people who *already work in the customs world*, and are just using the govt money to get the badge of a qualification. So not genuine new entrants to the market 8/

In a sign of the constraint in the market, some of the biggest logistics firms are already turning down Brexit work because they're sold out. Danish shipping giant Maersk is one. Kuehne & Nagel is only taking on customs work if it already handles freight for a business 9/

And this is the scene now playing out for many companies. They call up a customs specialist, realising they really need to get ready for this mountain of paperwork. Then they're told it's too late, their demands are too complex, they can't be accommodated 10/

Now is a lucrative moment to be a customs broker. But there just isn't enough of them. And it looks highly unlikely there will be in time for Jan. 1 11/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

The consequences: firms either choose not to import/export to the EU, hurting trade. Or they wing it and hope they'll get away with not having the right paperwork. But then they risk ending up in the Brexit lorry park... 12/

https://twitter.com/joe_mayes/status/1301566163831476224

And contributing to the risk of huge queues in Kent if they get pulled over by police for not having their documents 13/

https://twitter.com/Joe_Mayes/status/1308480972531347460

So there's lots at stake if this situation doesn't get sorted - and the direct evidence from Tesla and Heinz is that customs capacity is currently a major problem. Tick tock to Jan 1... ends/