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Business group Logistics UK has warned that the confusion and lack of clarity surrounding the implementation of new border checks on imported products from the EU, starting on 30 April 2024, will hit businesses’ bottom lines and, ultimately, consumers’ back pockets.
The latest phase of the Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), introduced as part of the post-Brexit Trade and Cooperation Agreement, will be implemented on Tuesday, 30 April, when documentary and physical checks and related import charges are introduced for plant products and medium and high-risk animal products imported from the EU. The range of products that could be subjected to checks include everyday items such as cut flowers, cheese, fresh fish and meat, yet there is still a pressing need for clarity over how the border checks will be implemented in practice.
As the leading business group representing the sector, Logistics UK is pressing the government to publish the exact timeline as to when physical checks will be scaled up and details of the compliance regime underpinning the new charging system. In addition, the group’s members want the government to publish the full modelling behind its assertion that its new import controls will have a 0.2% impact on inflation over three years.
Logistics UK’s Head of Trade and Devolved Policy, Nichola Mallon, says, “We know from experience, not least when controls were imposed on UK exports to the EU in 2021, the damage to businesses that increased border friction, costs and delays cause. That is why, throughout this whole protracted process, Logistics UK has been warning of the impact the new checks will impose, on smaller operators in particular, and already hard-pressed families across Great Britain. It is also deeply frustrating that with one day to go, our members still don’t have all the business-critical details they need regarding how the new procedures will be implemented.” Read more
Source: LOGISTICS UK
