However, the reason provided for this particular delay is a curious one.
DEFRA said: “This easement is a temporary measure to ensure that new ministers have a full and thorough opportunity to review the planned implementation of further border controls, and an opportunity to listen to businesses across import supply chains.”
Usually, with Brexit-related stuff we learn the infrastructure isn’t ready or staff haven’t been recruited or trained. Businesses need ‘more time’ to prepare has often been a trusty standby excuse for civil servants. But no, this time we're told it's to allow new ministers to have a "thorough opportunity to review the planned implementation."
This is eight years after the referendum and nearly four years after the TCA was agreed!!
Business doesn’t seem to have indicated that they aren’t prepared. The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), representing 700 companies in the UK's food supply chain, has been pressing ministers for a delay, warning that checks could add more than £200m to import costs and raise prices on supermarket shelves.
But what are the new ministers at DEFRA supposed to do about it? Whenever the checks are introduced costs will rise and there will be delays. Steve Reed is the DEFRA Secretary and his junior ministers are Daniel Zeichner MP, (Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs), Emma Hardy (Minister for Water and Flooding), Mary Creagh (Minister for Nature), and Baroness Hayman in the Lords. I assume it's Reed and Zeichner who want to look at the issue, but it's hard to see what they can do.
Nigel Jenney, CEO of the FPC, told The Guardian: “We are delighted that the new government is listening to the robust and cost-effective alternatives the industry has proposed for years.
“However, we still need to fundamentally rethink the broader strategy in terms of how it negatively impacts imports of cut flowers and plants, which is harming the backbone of our industry, wholesalers and SMEs.”
What are these "robust and cost-effective alternatives."? Does anyone know?
This all feeds into the findings of a report from academics from the Aston Business school at Birmingham university published yesterday and reported this morning by the BBC with the headline: Brexit deal impact in UK is worsening, warn economists. The full report is HERE but be careful, when I clicked on the link I got an anti-virus warning about some phishing software on their website.
The BBC reports that the authors say there was a "noticeable worsening of EU-UK trade in 2023".
"The negative impacts of the [trade agreement] have intensified over time, with 2023 showing more pronounced trade declines than previous years."
The report claims that between 2021 and 2023, monthly data show a 27% drop in UK exports and a 32% fall in imports to and from the EU. Even when considering annual data to smooth short-term fluctuations, the declines remain significant, 17% for exports and 23% for imports.
And:
"Robustness checks confirm these findings, indicating the profound and ongoing stifling effects of the TCA on UK-EU trade. The analysis reveals a heavily disrupted and weakening UK-EU supply chain post-TCA, evident across consumer, intermediate, and capital goods. The significant decline in consumer goods exports to the EU and corresponding UK imports suggests a disentanglement of the UK from EU value chains, with a shift towards local production. Despite the TCA’s dampening effect on UK exports, the UK remains dependent on the EU for intermediate and capital goods."
