Freight News, Sea

Businesses unprepared for Brexit, says ports chief

[ April 30, 2018   //   Chris ]

The British Ports Association has written to the Prime Minister calling for funding guarantees for any new border facilities and digital infrastructure, which may be needed after the UK leaves the European Union. Ports with EU traffic will need to provide new facilities and digital infrastructure for government officials to carry out customs and other border checks.

It follows publication of a study on 30 April by the British Chambers of Commerce and the Port of Dover, which found that many importers and exporters are not preparing for changes to customs procedures after Brexit

BPA’s chief executive, Richard Ballantyne commented: “Leaving the EU Customs Union and Single Market means that goods travelling to and from Europe will be subject to new authorisations and other requirements. Traders will need to undertake new border process which could be most challenging for freight on lorries travelling through our ‘roll-on roll-off’ ferry port gateways, such as Dover.”

He added that while, at for most other ports, customs procedures should be relatively straightforward to achieve however there are still big questions around other frontier inspections such as port health standards which are mandated under EU law and without agreement will be difficult to overcome, particularly for UK exports through the EU.

Tags: BPA, British Ports Association, dover