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Lines of vehicles at the Port of Dover in England in July
London
CNN
—
The UK government has postponed health and safety controls on food imports from the European Union for the fifth time in three years, amid fears the extra controls would drive up food prices and disrupt essential supplies.
The latest delay shows that Britain is still struggling to cope with the painful consequences of leaving the European Union, which has skyrocketed costs for British businesses and weighed on trade, investment and ultimately economic growth.
Brexit has already contributed to the UK being particularly high Inflation is being fueled by tensions in the country’s main trading relationship and a devaluation of the pound, making imports more expensive. A recent study by the London School of Economics found that Brexit has been responsible for about a third of UK food price inflation since 2019, adding nearly £7 billion ($8.8 billion) to the UK’s grocery bill.
The UK government is striving to avoid this anything to make matters worse. Tuesday’s announcement also underscores long-standing fears that border controls on food imports from the EU – which provides 28% of the food consumed in Britain – could disrupt supplies.
The government said on Tuesday that extending the deadlines “would give stakeholders additional time to prepare for the new controls”.
Under the revised schedule, health certification for ‘High-risk foods’ and ‘medium-risk animal and plant products’, which were previously due to launch in late October, are being pushed back to January 2024. Physical checks have been postponed to the end of April. with the postponement of the final controls of EU imports – safety declarations – to October 2024.
Some UK industry groups have welcomed recent delays in border controls, which they say would lead to higher costs and friction in supply chains.
“These Brexit checks will stoke food price inflation whenever they are introduced and the longer they are held up the better,” said Shane Brennan, CEO of the Cold Chain Federation.
The association, which represents companies that supply perishable products that require refrigerated storage, fears some smaller EU suppliers could simply stop exporting their products to the UK given the new and costly red tape.
However, industry groups also urged the government to provide certainty for companies that had repeatedly prepared for inspections only to find extensions of deadlines.
Although the delay was the “right decision,” Brennan said it was “another blow” to the government’s credibility and “this confusion at the top.” would make it even more difficult to ensure EU companies are ready to comply with the new rules.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, a trade association, added: “We need to secure EU exporters who have already experienced several shifts [UK] We will thoroughly prepare for the controls in January and April, confident that the controls will be implemented.”
British food producers have been subject to extensive border controls on products entering the EU since January 2021, when the UK left the EU’s massive single market and customs union. In turn, controls on EU food entering the UK were due to come into effect at the same time but were initially delayed in the midst of the pandemic.
The UK economy remains in a fragile state after Covid-19 was quickly followed by the twin evils of high inflation and rising interest rates.
The UK inflation rate is the highest in the G7 group, with consumer prices up 6.8% yoy in July. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to halve inflation to around 5% this year.
In its statement on Tuesday, the government said the latest border control schedule took into account “the small potential impact on inflation” and the government’s “firm commitment to lower the rate”.
According to his estimates, new checks are expected to add less than 0.2 percentage point on food inflation over a three-year period.
Inflation aside, food supply disruptions remain an ongoing problem in the UK, with just under half of all the food it consumes being imported.
Earlier this year, major UK supermarkets had to ration some fruit and vegetables after bad weather in key growing areas caused imports to collapse.
A spokesman for the Food and Drink Federation, which represents UK food manufacturers, said the recent delays in border controls were “regrettable but necessary to ensure the appropriate infrastructure is in place to ensure shipments of food and drink from the EU are not prevented .” disturbed.”
In an analysis published earlier this month, the FDF found that trade in food and drink between the UK and the EU fell significantly in the first quarter of 2021 and took almost two years to recover.
— Olesya Dmitracova contributed to the coverage.
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