The chickens are coming home to roost. The Times and The Telegraph are both covering what they both suggest is another potential hurdle to overcome in the future relationship talks in that the EU are refusing to grant cabotage rights to British hauliers. Cabotage allows trucks to pick up loads and make deliveries inside territories other than their own. A UK truck might deliver a load to Poland and pick up a return load to Germany and then perhaps another one back to the UK. It keeps transport costs down for everybody.
But, according to The Times:
"Brussels has rejected the UK’s opening demands for continued wide-ranging access to the EU for British truckers, setting the stage for a clash when Brexit trade negotiations resume on Wednesday. UK road haulage groups warned that failure to strike a deal by the end of the post-Brexit transition on December 31 would hurt hauliers and businesses on both side of the Channel, driving up costs and reducing availability for pan-EU supply chains."
Apparently some member states think what we are asking for is too close to single market membership and are determined to see Britain lose a valuable right. The Telegraph report comments from David Frost, saying he will tell Brussels that refusal to allow wide-ranging access for British lorries is likely to harm the EU more than the UK. But then he would say that wouldn't he?
He told Brussels back in February that they didn't understand Brexit because it was really all about sovereignty and we knew there would be what he called "trade offs." He said:
"We aren’t frightened by suggestions there is going to be friction, there is going to be greater barriers. We know that and have factored this in and we look further forward – to the gains of the future."
Now when the EU use their own sovereignty he is back on the economic damage argument. I wonder if he can see the irony?
The Times report says we want British truckers to be allowed to continue making pick-ups and drop-offs both inside EU member states and between them, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said the British request for two stops was “perfectly reasonable” and it was in the interest of both parties to reach a deal. “Two stops is a reasonable ask in order to keep trade moving. And if the EU don’t agree to that it will constrain the ability of EU hauliers to come to the UK, which will act reciprocally. That doesn’t benefit anyone,”
The problem is that the EU is seven times our size and continental hauliers will be fishing in a far bigger pond - who is likely to suffer most? Plus we get a 30-50% of our food from EU countries depending on the time of year so we are much more reliant on transport.
What we are offering in return are transit rights across the UK to other countries, which The Times says is particularly vital to Ireland as it uses the UK as a “land bridge” for exports heading into Europe. But unfortunately this isn't true since we have already agreed to the Common Transit Convention (CTC) which allows a sealed load to pass through multiple territories with just one declaration at the final destination country.
Ireland and the EU are also signatories to the CTC. A UK haulier delivering to (say) Turkey can pass through the EU but he will then need to find a full or nearly full load coming all the way back to Britain which will be much harder than finding several return loads with a couple of pick ups in EU states. This is the problem.
Needless to say, The Express see it differently. The EU is being awkward. A Tory MP is quoted saying Brussels is using this to "bolster up its extremely weak negotiating position."
Thursday’s Daily EXPRESS: “Brexit Trade Talks Hit Road Block” #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/qB9SjCJTGz— Allie Hodgkins-Brown (@AllieHBNews) August 19, 2020
And talking about chickens coming home to roost, sugar beet farmers in East Anglia are becoming nervous about Tate & Lyle having access to another 260,000 tonnes of cane sugar tariff free and what that will mean for them - as well they might. I just wonder if some of them voted to leave the EU and are regretting it? It would be a surprise to me if they are not.
I confidently forecast this will happen across more and more sectors as the reality of Brexit becomes painfully clear over the next few months.
