From Eamonn O’Reilly’s office, the view spans the whole of Dublin’s cargo port, with its cranes, containers and huge ships. On the left, a large blue shed dominates. “It used to be a warehouse, but customs are now there”explains the director of the port of the Irish capital.
Until the end of 2020, very few cargo checks were carried out at the port of Dublin. Of the 1.5 million containers and semi-trailers imported each year, only 200,000 came from countries outside the European Union (EU). Brexit changed everything.
Since 1er January 2021, the UK is no longer in the single market. “We must now control the majority”, says O’Reilly. Customs are everywhere: in addition to this shed, several large plots of land are reserved for various controls, from kiosks for checking papers to truck “scanners”, which make it possible to identify possible fraudulent goods. After just over a year on this diet, Mr O’Reilly sums up Brexit in his own way: ” What a mess ! »
Dublin Port is a fascinating summary of the profound economic reorganization caused by the British exit from the EU. In one year, the total quantity of goods arriving in the Irish capital remained more or less stable, with a slight fall of 4%. On the other hand, the flows are no longer the same at all: “Before Brexit, two-thirds of goods came from Britain and one-third from the EU; now we are half and half. » Many companies now prefer to bypass Britain, sending boats directly from France, Belgium or the Netherlands to Ireland.
A now uncertain “land bridge”
With a sigh, Mr O’Reilly recalls the virtual disappearance of customs when the single market was launched in 1993. “It was the British themselves who pushed for its creation. » This enabled the development of Britain’s “land bridge”: trucks would arrive loaded with goods at Calais (Pas-de-Calais), board boats, get off at Dover and then drive across Britain to the port of Liverpool or Holyhead, in North Wales, and took a boat back to Dublin or Belfast. The system was fast and well run.
From now on, this path has become more complicated, since it means a passage outside the single European market. Too uncertain, many companies have concluded. Gradually, these separated their British and Irish supply chains. Lidl supermarkets provide a good example. Before Brexit they served both Irish and UK stores. Today Ireland has its own supply.
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