Post-Brexit News and Discussions

[Time_Traveller]

Warning EU border system has lasting "negative impacts"

1 hour ago

The Port of Dover and ferry companies have warned of "serious and lasting negative impacts" if the EU's new border IT system is implemented this autumn.

It said if the current plans go ahead "communities, businesses and authorities" would suffer.

Under the delayed Entry Exit System, people entering the EU will have to register fingerprints, a photo and passport details.

Long queues have also been predicted.

Juxtaposed border controls mean French border police check passports as people leave the UK to cross the Channel from Dover, London St Pancras and Folkestone.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68099482

[Time_Traveller]

UK halts trade negotiations with Canada over hormones in beef ban

6 hours ago

The UK has stopped its trade talks with Canada, after nearly two years of negotiations on a post-Brexit agreement.

Trade between the two countries currently takes place under the terms of a deal the UK rolled over from its time as an EU member.

A time-limited agreement allowed the UK to continue to sell cars and cheese without high import taxes.

But talks about extending these as part of a new deal have now broken down.

It marks the first time the UK has formally suspended talks with a trade partner since formally leaving the EU trading regime in 2021.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68098177

This is definitely one to keep an eye on the UK government as they could unban or find a loophole for the Canada Trade Agreement.

[Time_Traveller]

Stormont: Details of deal offered to DUP beginning to emerge

1 hour ago

It is still unclear whether the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is prepared to accept a deal from the government and return to Stormont.

But the contours of a possible deal are starting to emerge.

The DUP has been boycotting devolved government in protest at Northern Ireland's Brexit deal, now called the Windsor Framework

The party wants to see the end of the "Irish Sea border" - the post-Brexit trade frictions between GB and NI.

That is not going to happen but the government is offering measures to tackle its effects.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68113842

[Time_Traveller]

New Brexit rules and EU vet shortage put meat imports at risk

Sat 27 Jan 2024 12.39 GMT

A lack of vets in Europe could force meat suppliers in the EU to hold back deliveries earmarked for the UK under new post-Brexit rules set to come in this week, experts have warned.

The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has concerns that imports may be held back due to a shortage of vet availability in the European Union to carry out checks needed under the new rules.

Peter Hardwick, trade policy adviser at the BMPA, said he believed suppliers would “take the UK government’s rules at face value”, and he expected some big suppliers not to risk their stock or reputation by sending orders without a health certificate.

On Wednesday, the government will launch the first stage of its new border policy, which will overhaul the way plant and animal products can be imported from the European Union.

This stage of the “border target operating model” will require all meat and dairy exports to be checked by a vet within the European country before they can be sent to the UK. It requires vets to fill in a seven-page document certifying that the animal has been free of disease and has certain vaccinations. Currently, no health checks are required on imports.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/j ... ts-at-risk

[Time_Traveller]

DUP: Next days crucial for Stormont return, says Sinn Féin

10 minutes ago

The next days will be "crucial" for the return of Stormont, Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill has said.

On Monday, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) endorsed a deal to restore power sharing after a 23-month absence.

Its leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said there was a basis for Stormont's return, subject to laws being passed at parliament and a timetable agreement.

Monday night's private DUP meeting was leaked online via a recording device, BBC News NI understands.

Speaking at Stormont on Tuesday, Ms O'Neill, who is in line to be Stormont's first minister, said it was a "day of optimism".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68136950

[wjfox]

Post-Brexit controls on food and farm imports start

12 hours ago

Post-Brexit controls on food, plant and animal imports to Britain from the EU have come into force.

Health certificates will now be required on EU goods ranging from cut flowers, to fresh produce including meat, fruit and vegetables.

Some industry bodies raised concerns the rules could cause delays and push up costs, but others said they would help UK farmers be more competitive.

The government said its border model would "minimise burdens for traders".

The UK left the EU exactly four years ago, but it has taken some time for the government to implement new trade rules - legally required under the Brexit agreement - for goods travelling from the EU to the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68126880


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The usual lunacy from Andrea Leadsom:

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Eurostar may cap services due to post-Brexit biometric passport checks, says station owner

Sun 4 Feb 2024 12.17 GMT

Eurostar could be forced to limit passenger numbers travelling from St Pancras each day under post-Brexit plans to bring in biometric border controls later this year, the owner of the station has warned.

HS1, the owner and operator of the line and stations between London and the Channel tunnel, has raised concerns that planning for new Entry/Exit System (EES) checks at the London rail station are “severely inadequate”, and would lead to long delays and potential capping of services and passenger numbers.

The EES requires citizens from outside the EU or Schengen area to register before entering the zone.

This will replace the stamping of passports for UK travellers, and instead require passengers to enter personal information and details about their trip, as well as submitting fingerprint and a facial biometric data.

It has been mooted that the new checks will come into force in October but its implementation has been delayed several times in recent years because the infrastructure was not ready.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... tion-owner

[wjfox]

Letter: Lon­don food mar­ket boss urges Brexit rules rethink

13 HOURS AGO

The new post-Brexit bor­der checks set to come into effect in April are yet another dis­heart­en­ing example of politi­cians mak­ing policies without fully con­sid­er­ing the impact.

Over the years, the hos­pit­al­ity and food indus­tries have been stretched bey­ond belief by Brexit, the pan­demic and the cost of liv­ing crisis. These new changes to import rules will increase the num­ber of cross bor­der checks on EU food and drink cre­at­ing new chal­lenges, pro­long­ing the time it takes for products to arrive in the UK and poten­tially res­ult­ing in des­troyed plant, meat and dairy pro­duce.

The UK is one of the highest con­sumers of ultra-pro­cessed foods in the world. As founder of Lon­don’s first sus­tain­able com­munity food mar­ket, I fear European farm­ers and sup­pli­ers will think twice about export­ing fresh food to the UK, which means Brit­ish con­sumers will lose out on a vari­ety of produce, see an increase in prices and ulti­mately find it harder to access the healthy and nutri­tious food they need.

This couldn’t come at a worse time. The gov­ern­ment must recon­sider these new rules and focus their efforts on sup­port­ing an already stretched hosp­ital­ity sec­tor, as well as fam­il­ies who are doing their best to feed them­selves healthy and afford­able food.

Andrea Rasca
Founder and Chief Exec­ut­ive, Mer­cato Met­ro­pol­it­ano, Lon­don SE1, UK

https://www.ft.com/content/8635b468-f86 ... be6cae2094

[Time_Traveller]

Italian man removed from UK despite post-Brexit Home Office certificate

Thu 8 Feb 2024 13.01 GMT

An Italian man has been removed from the UK despite holding a Home Office certificate explicitly stating he has a right to travel in and out of the country while officials process his application to live and work in the country post-Brexit.

Massimiliano Melargo, 27, told how he was detained overnight, separated from his Ukrainian partner, and put on the first plane to Venice by Border Force officials in a step lawyers say contravenes the withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK.

“I don’t feel great because I am away from my girlfriend, I have lost my job and I’m going to lose the deposit on my flat,” said Melargo.

He had left the country for a birthday holiday break in Finland and was originally told he would be removed to Helsinki when he was stopped at Gatwick.

He said he feared he could not come back to pick up his belongings or to visit his girlfriend of five years, or his sister, who has been in the country for 12 years.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ertificate

[Time_Traveller]

The Brexit bill: £100bn hit to UK exports as toy, medical kit and jewellery sales slump

2 hours ago

Brexit is leaving a hole of almost £100bn in annual UK exports, making Britain’s economy worse off than if it had remained in the European Union, new analysis has claimed.

Businesses that make an array of products including sporting goods, children’s toys, jewellery and medical equipment have struggled the most with border costs imposed by the UK’s decision to leave the EU, leading to 30 per cent less trade between 2020 and 2023 than if Britain had stayed in the trading bloc.

Since leaving the single market, Britain’s export growth has been sluggish behind other advanced economies, leading to missed growth in goods and services exports of around £23bn quarterly, the analysis reveals.

John Springford, an associate fellow at the Centre for European Reform (CER), a pro-EU think tank, said his analysis “shows that Brexit is leading to permanent depression to trade between the UK and the EU”.

“If Brexit hadn’t happened, and we can visit the universe where Remain won the referendum, then trade and [the economy] would be significantly higher,” he said.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/p ... 91585.html

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Reform UK, a disgrace to society and this is why I don't watch right-wing looney networks like GB News and Talk TV.

[Time_Traveller]

Portsmouth's new Brexit border post could be demolished

Friday 22 March 2024 10:55, UK

A new £24m border control post may have to be demolished because repeated changes to post-Brexit border arrangements have left it commercially unviable.

The facility at Portsmouth International Port is due to begin physical checks on food and plant imports from the EU at the end of next month, but changes to border protocols since it was built mean half of the building will never be used.

Built with a £17m central government grant and £7m from Portsmouth City Council, which owns the port, it is designed to carry out checks on up to 80 truck loads of produce a day. The port now expects to process only four or five daily.

As a consequence, half of the 14 loading bays will never be used, and annual running costs of £800,000 a year will not be covered by the fees charged to importers for carrying out checks.

Portsmouth is not alone, with ports across the country puzzling over how to make the over-sized, over-specified buildings commissioned by the government pay for themselves with far less traffic.

https://news.sky.com/story/portsmouths- ... d-13099358

[Time_Traveller]

Say one thing, do another? The government’s record rise in net migration

2 hours ago



Think back to the 2019 election campaign. Quite reasonably, you may not remember every detail of the Conservatives' manifesto - but perhaps you do recall one promise: to reduce immigration.

Think back further, to 2016 and the Brexit referendum. Then there was a promise to "take back control" of the UK immigration system. And since it left the EU in 2020, the UK does have more control.

But the numbers of people who've moved here didn't go down, they went up.

Since the Brexit vote and the Conservatives' victory in 2019, the 12 months to June 2022 saw the fastest population growth since the 1960s. Current projections from the Office for National Statistics put the UK on course for 74 million people by 2036 - six million more than there are today.

You'd be well within your rights to ask how that could be? The answer, according to the ONS, is largely immigration.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68626430

[Time_Traveller]

‘You’ve got to be joking’: Mandelson dismisses prospect of UK rejoining EU

Wed 27 Mar 2024 14.38 GMT

Peter Mandelson has dismissed the prospect of an incoming Labour government taking Britain back into the EU, saying “you’ve got to be joking” that Brussels would want to renegotiate the UK’s membership.

The Labour peer, a former EU trade commissioner and close adviser to Keir Starmer, said rejoining the 27-country bloc would require a referendum that UK voters had little desire for, after the Conservatives’ botched handling of Brexit.

“I cannot see the British people running towards [a referendum] for love nor money after what we went through during the last one. I really do not think that people are going to run towards a repeat of that experience,” he told a British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) event at Heathrow airport on Wednesday.

Lord Mandelson, speaking at the launch of the lobby group’s report on building “Global Britain” after the general election, added that a Starmer government would build closer ties with the EU without rejoining.

The EU wanted a more “stable, constructive relationship” with the UK, Mandelson continued, but there was no desire in Brussels for wholesale negotiation of the country’s return.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -eu-labour

For the UK to rejoin the EU, the country would need a drastic government change and one that is fully pro-EU in the decades ahead.

[Time_Traveller]

New post-Brexit tariff to apply to UK cars going to Canada

20 hours ago



From Monday, any cars the UK exports to Canada will face an additional 6% tariff, or tax.

The change comes after a post-Brexit agreement to continue EU trading terms expired without a new deal.

The new tariffs are determined by whether the UK products exported to Canada use EU parts and materials.

Limits, which had been waived, will now apply, meaning that certain exports, including cars, will not qualify for zero-tariff trade.

In 2023, 1.3% of British-built cars were exported to Canada, making it the UK's eighth largest market, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), which represents the UK car industry.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68688486

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

Food price fears as Brexit import charges confirmed

11 minutes ago



The government has revealed how much companies will have to pay to import foods due to Brexit.

Small imports of products such as fish, salami, sausage, cheese and yoghurt will be subject to up to a £145 fee from 30 April, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Details about the charges have been postponed several times.

The Cold Chain Federation said the new charges would hit food prices.

Its chief executive Phil Pluck said the fee would have to be passed on to "either the EU importer, the smaller UK retailer, or the UK consumer".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68726852

[wjfox]