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Tudor Freight boss calls for Brexit delay

[ January 24, 2019   //   ]

Director of Leeds-based Tudor International Freight, Adam Johnson, has joined calls for the Article 50 period to be extended in the interests of the UK’s traders
With fewer than 70 days to go before the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, he says it is becoming impossible to see how departure arrangements acceptable to the bloc and most British MPs could be put in place by this deadline.
Mr Johnson said extending the Article 50 period would be better for the UK’s EU traders than the current position, under which the country will automatically leave on 29 March. This was because the latter arrangement now contained a very real risk of a no-deal departure, which would greatly harm these companies.
He explained: “For a withdrawal agreement to be put fully in place, not only do changes to the current draft have to be negotiated with the EU and the revised text approved by Parliament but about 800 pieces of other legislation will be necessary to ensure it’s legally executed too. And those are just the key domestic requirements – there are other demands, such as ratification by the EU, as well – so it’s now very difficult to see all this happening by the current deadline.”
Labour MP Yvette Cooper hopes to table an amendment to a motion in the Commons next week which would force the government to ask the EU to extend the Article 50 period until the end of 2019 if no withdrawal deal had been agreed by 26 February.
Recently published EU plans for a no-deal reveal that planes and lorries from the UK will be able to continue flying and driving to and from the EU after Brexit, but not between points within it, and only then for a year and nine months respectively. However, these arrangements depend partly on UK operators following EU rules and the European Commission can unilaterally revoke the haulage system at any time if it feels UK operators have broken its regulations on drivers’ hours, for example.

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