New: the government is considering delaying Brexit import checks, due to supply chain fears 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In short, the govt is worried about the impact of the next wave of Brexit red tape coinciding with lockdown lifting and pubs and restaurants re-opening 2/
The new requirements include export health certificates on food coming from the EU (are there enough vets to issue them? are companies ready?) and full import declarations for all goods from July 1 3/
And a reminder -- it's trade in food that has been worst hit by the Brexit border controls on exports to the EU... 4/
Exclusive: the government was about to publish a plan for monitoring and evaluating free-trade deals in December. Then it signed the Brexit deal, and the plan was shelved 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In an internal email seen by Bloomberg, the Department for International Trade was due to publish this document - Free Trade Agreements: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - in the w/c Dec. 14, just before the Brexit deal was concluded on Christmas Eve 2/
It commits the government to detailed scrutiny of new FTAs it signs -- biennial monitoring reports, and a full evaluation report within five years 3/
This is a pretty stunning paragraph in the EU's letter to Michael Gove. It effectively claims the U.K. is not enforcing the Northern Ireland Protocol 1/
And the UK request to extend grace periods for trade? It gets a hard knockback. Essentially EU says: this is what you signed up to, so do it 2/
Big question for the UK now - what does it do? Johnson has threatened activate Article 16 of the protocol - which allows you to suspend parts of it - if the trade issues weren't resolved. But will he actually follow through... 3/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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/
The PM's spokesman was repeatedly asked today if we'd get a formal assessment -- like we've had for other trade deals, such as the Japan accord 2/ gov.uk/government/pub…
But no joy. The reply: `We’ve set out the detail of the deal, and the opportunities and benefits it provides the U.K. We’ve been clear it’s a good deal, which allows us to maintain access to the EU market.' 3/
Exclusive: Labour condemns ‘denial and bluster’ of government’s Brexit response as red tape bites 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
In a letter from @RachelReevesMP to Michael Gove seen by Bloomberg, Labour says the government seems to have ‘no plan’ to deal with problems firms face from new bureaucracy 2/
Reeves is particularly critical on customs agent capacity - industry said it needed 50,000, but thinks only 12,000 were trained. And funds to train more have run out.. 3/ bloomberg.com/amp/news/artic…
New: more than half of firms moving goods between EU and UK have faced delays since Jan 1, due to Brexit and Covid impact 1/ bloomberg.com/news/articles/… w/ @lizzzburden
The data comes from a survey of 185 supply chain managers by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply. CIPS economist John Glen said: `As the transportation of goods grows, so will the queues.' 2/
Other interesting data points from today -- Emma Churchill, who's leading the civil service effort on the border, said freight levels are currently at about 70% of the norm across the short straits 3/