Brussels advises EU states to disregard UK effort to cut back commerce border delays

Brussels bureaucrats have “advised” EU states “not to respond” to a web based questionnaire the UK has issued in a bid to cut back commerce border delays brought on by crimson tape.

The European Commission is reportedly “unhappy” that British officers requested member states straight about how they’re geared up to facilitate new checks on items coming into the UK. Brussels is claimed to have branded the UK’s request for details about every EU state’s “capacity to issue sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) export certificates” as “problematic”.

And an official at the EU’s health directorate, DG Sante, reportedly fired off a written warning to officials at the UK’s Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It advised them against using channels outside the EU-UK trade agreement for communication, according to documents obtained by a British newspaper.

However, even a leading remainer is among those criticising Brussels for its heavy-handed approach. And Brexiteer John Redwood has accused the EU of being “unfriendly when it could be way more smart for them to be cooperative as they export much more to us than we export to them.”

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who voted Remain but self-describes as a ‘moderate eurosceptic’, appeared to agree. He said that Brussels “may have handled it a bit extra flippantly. It will not be precisely a capital offence”.

But he acknowledged that Brussels was “strictly appropriate”, because “commerce is an EU duty, not the duty of particular person member states”. This view was echoed by former business secretary Peter Mandelson, who served as EU trade commissioner from 2004 to 2008.

Mandelson said that while it may be “tempting” to try and circumvent Brussels, this “doesn’t work and is counterproductive”.

He instructed The Independent: “The British authorities ought to be doubling down on relationship with the fee and constructing belief. Britain desperately wants this to be able to mitigate our losses in commerce.” 

This sentiment was echoed by David Davis, the UK’s first Brexit secretary. He mentioned that the EU “is always suspicious of any attempt to talk directly to member states.” Davis added that “good diplomacy tries to grasp the particular person you might be negotiating with, or coping with, at all times”.

One industry figure said there are still many unanswered questions – and “a number of uncertainty and confusion amongst European companies concerning the certificates they’ll want and the way border controls will function”. However, Shane Brennan, chief govt of the Cold Chain Federation, additionally instructed The Independent that the spat was “unhelpful friction”.

Nonetheless, former Brexit minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has dismissed the row as a “storm in a teacup”. He instructed The Independent: “I don’t assume we ought to be imposing these controls in any respect. I managed once I was Brexit alternatives minister to delay them as a result of they purely impose prices on British customers for no actual benefit.

“It seems to me to be a protectionist measure designed to make trade more difficult, and not in the interests of the UK economy.”

An EU official mentioned: “It is up to the UK to draw up a workable import regime, taking into account the significant volume of exports from the EU to the UK.

“Nevertheless, the commission is in close contact with the UK authorities and member states in order to understand the consequences and requirements resulting from the future implementation of the ‘Border Target Operating Model’ for the EU.”

A spokesperson for the UK Government mentioned they have been creating “a new world-class system to provide protection from security and biosecurity threats” – and that this can “transform the UK’s border controls”.

They vowed the new system would prevent border delays by reducing the need for physical checks and “by making certain that checks happen away from ports the place that is wanted to permit site visitors to stream freely”.

“We continue to engage extensively with industry and will publish the target operating model shortly,” added the spokesperson.