New: Just as Britain's pubs and restaurants expect a post-lockdown boom, a new Brexit problem threatens to spoil the party... 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
From April and July, the U.K. will impose new import controls on food and drink coming from the EU -- which makes up about 30% of Britain's food supply. (Up until now, the government has been waving this stuff through the border) 2/ 
The timing of these new checks -- extra paperwork, border control posts -- coinciding with a likely surge in demand for eating out etc, has executives very worried. `It's going to be like a Big Bang, a peak season of all peak seasons,' said Peter Ward of @UKWarehouse 3/
And remember, it's food & drink trade that has been worst hit by Brexit so far. Exports to the EU - which already face these restrictions - have seen fish, meat spoiling at the border due to the new red tape 4/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
As @ColdChainShane says, the UK imports about twice as much food as it exports. So the scale of the challenge here is v significant - and the govt still hasn't built all the infrastructure to handle the new checks. Here's Penny Mordaunt conceding that yesterday 5/
This will be a big change for supply chains. 3.2 million tonnes of fresh fruit and veg come to the UK from the EU annually, for example - and from July, all shipments will need new paperwork and may have to go through a special border post 6/
Could the government delay the checks? It seems like there are no plans to. Emma Churchill, the chief civil servant leading the Brexit border response, said yesterday there is `complete certainty' about the changes coming in April and July 7/
And could the government enforce them in a very light-touch way? Perhaps, but WTO rules require you to implement your trading rules fairly and without discrimination, said @ColdChainShane 8/
So therein lies the next big Brexit challenge - when the economy is opening up again, full border checks on trade going both ways... ends/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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