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Clarity and Decisive Plans Needed Immediately.
UK – Trade Minister Liz Truss is not the only one concerned about the country's preparedness for Brexit. After months of doubts from the likes of the British International Freight Association (BIFA) and the United Kingdom Warehousing Association (UKWA), the Road Haulage Association (RHA) has supported the assorted worries of the freight forwarding lobby group, and criticism of tardiness from the trade storage body, to add the argument of the delivery segment to the complainants.
While the UK has announced that it will not be introducing complete customs checks on goods arriving from the EU, Michel Barnier, EU Brexit negotiator has confirmed that from 1 January 2021, every UK product imported into the EU will face checks, regardless of whether or not a trade deal is reached. He also said that the EU has hired and trained hundreds of additional customs agents to handle the additional customs paperwork which will be generated.
By contrast, the UK government is still a long way from their stated target of having 50,000 additional customs agents trained up by 31 December 2020. Earlier this year Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, offered no challenge to the RHA's estimate that the new customs procedures with the EU will generate around two hundred thousand new documents, which will in turn require those 50,000 new customs agents to be trained. Commenting, RHA chief executive Richard Burnett said:
“RHA members, and traders in general, need clarity on how they will be expected to run their businesses from January 2021. What worries us is that at the moment, the UK hasn't hired anything like the number of customs agents needed to process the new form-filling. Read more
Source: HANDY SHIPPING GUIDE
