The UK government’s Brexit preparations are floundering in a field of mud. Literally. To deal with any traffic jams with trucks at the border after 1er January 2021, when the new trade relationship between London and Brussels comes into effect, UK authorities are building a huge car park in Sevington, Kent, some 20 kilometers upstream from Folkstone, where the entrance to the Channel Tunnel. Truckers will be able to park there, the time to settle the new customs formalities if their papers do not comply.
On December 14, Damian Green, the Conservative MP for Ashford (south-east England), where the car park is located, revealed that the work would not be finished on time. Preparations have been slowed down by heavy rainfall in recent weeks (the land is partly floodable). “It should be finished by the end of February 2021”, assures the chosen one. Rain in England in December, who would have believed?
Agreement or not on the “future relationship” between London and Brussels, it is already clear that the United Kingdom will not be ready to apply to the letter the new rules implied by its final exit from the internal market and the customs union European. Whatever happens, at 1er January 2020, customs controls will have to be restored on both sides of the Channel, in British ports, airports and at the exit of the tunnel. An agreement would simply avoid having to pay customs duties as well.
“Businesses have their heads in the sand”
The British authorities only belatedly launched the construction of specific customs and health infrastructures. The land for the 12 hectare parking lot was not acquired by the government until July. According to Mr. Green, controls will be transferred to Waterbrook, a parking lot already built a few hundred meters away, originally intended to serve as a resting place for drivers.
Companies do not hide their prodigious annoyance at this lack of preparation. At a conference organized in early December by the Institute for Government, Adam Marshall, managing director of the British Chamber of Commerce, brandished with exasperation one of the leaflets sent by the government. “It is written, in big letters: ‘get ready’, followed by some generalities. But this is not enough. Companies need concrete details: we want to know the ten-digit customs tariff codes, how the rules of origin of products will be determined… We have a list of 24 unanswered questions. It takes clarity. “
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