08 February 2024

FT: UK admits ports could be overwhelmed under post-Brexit rules

Animal products entering the UK from the EU will be waved through without checks if British ports are overwhelmed by new post-Brexit border controls, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. An “automated clearance process” will clear goods for entry without paperwork checks if there are capacity issues at border control posts, the government contingency planning papers said.

Trade bodies have warned that paperwork and physical checks on plant and animal products from Europe, introduced last week but set to come into force in April, risk disrupting supply chains and causing supermarket shortages. “For a period after April 2024 there is . . . a possibility that some [border control posts] — despite good planning — may not be able to complete 100 per cent documentary checks before a consignment’s arrival in GB,” the documents said.

The automated clearance process — known as the “timed out decision contingency feature” or Todcof — will apply to medium-risk animal products “on an interim basis”, while the government rolls out the new import controls. Implementing the controls has been postponed five times since 2021, which has left EU exporters of animal and plant goods free to send their products to the UK without checks, as they had done before Brexit....

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