Strong question from @hilarybennmp to Michael Gove on Brexit: food supplies in NI threatened, border prep `frankly pathetic' per hauliers, IT systems won't be ready. Why is he optimistic, when others aren't?
Gove: I'm meeting businesses, there are challenges but opportunities 1/
Benn's question referenced the situation in Northern Ireland, where industry say changes to the Customs Declaration Service have come too late, and new software won't be delivered 2/
And another week where @RachelReevesMP presses Gove on how many customs agents have been hired for Brexit. (Remember, if there aren't enough agents, companies won't be able to move goods UK-EU because of the new paperwork). And again Gove declines to give a specific figure 4/
With ~35 working days until Brexit hits for real, a thread about the new IT systems... 1/
A House of Lords committee has just heard stark evidence from industry that critical systems won't be ready on Jan. 1, especially the customs system for Northern Ireland, known as CDS (Customs Declaration Service) 2/
Steve Bartlett, head of the Association of Freight Software Suppliers, says they haven't been able to do testing, there are grave reservations, they've simply run out of time 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Scoop: British bike makers face a wave of cheap Chinese imports after Brexit, as EU anti-dumping rules are dropped by the U.K. 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Brompton Bicycles is among the companies in the firing line, as DIT has decided not to maintain the EU's tariffs of up to 48.5% on bikes coming in from China. The levy was introduced in response to large state support by China to its manufacturers 2/ eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…
Post-Brexit, the UK has control of its trade defence policy. It says it will only maintain EU anti-dumping rules if domestic producers make up more than 1% of the local market for a good. They say British bikes failed on this metric 3/ gov.uk/guidance/trade…
(Caveat: these benefits sit alongside an array of negative consequences in the form of worse access and higher costs of doing business with the EU. But if you follow @Brexit, you knew that already. So let's focus on potential positives...) 2/
(Also: it would be helpful if the govt did a better job of pointing out concrete, real-world examples of Brexit gains that go beyond rhetorical flourishes and are undisputed wins only possible outside the EU. This took a fair amount of leg work. End of preamble!) 3/
Exclusive: Key software to keep goods moving after Brexit won't be ready in time, developers warn 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
The Association of Freight Software Suppliers, whose members connect businesses to the government's customs systems, says they haven't been given enough time and information to develop their IT products. They're urging HMRC to ready contingency plans 2/
And even if they did have the information, AFSS says it'd be too late to train businesses on the software. Plus many companies put a freeze on installing new systems in December and January anyway, the group says 3/
The basics: goods moving GB to NI will need new paperwork. This is because the UK agreed to uphold the integrity of the EU customs territory, and didn't want a border on the island of Ireland. This is the govt's own guidance on the NI protocol 2/ gov.uk/government/pub…
And the government has kindly thrown money at the issue, in a bid to help companies. It'd be strange to spend money on processes that don't exist 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Boris Johnson is willing to risk a no-deal split over fishing rights. But the industry only accounts for 0.1% of the U.K. economy bloomberg.com/news/features/… via @bpolitics 1/
Great read by Chris Jasper, which captures the two sides of the fishing equation. Brexit means catching more fish, but risks access to lucrative EU export markets. Plus, large corporations own the catching rights.. 2/
And plenty of cracking quotes from fishermen. Warnings of the French kicking off, too much value being spirited away to the continent, plus views of a veteran from the Cod Wars with Iceland. Quite the attribution 3/