Connect with us

Published

on

New post-Brexit border controls on animal and plant products imported from the EU will cost businesses £330m a year in extra charges, the government has admitted.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, a minister of state in the Cabinet Office, confirmed the figure in a letter seen by Sky News to Labour MP Stella Creasy, who chairs the Labour Movement for Europe.

On the costs of the new Border Trade Operating Model (BTOM), which will be phased in from January 2024, Baroness Neville-Rolfe wrote: “It will depend greatly on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the new controls regimes. We estimate these new costs of the model at £330m pa [per annum] overall, across all EU imports.”

Politics Live: Liz Truss channels Donald Trump as she addresses packed event

It comes ahead of a speech by Business and Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch at the Conservative Party Conference on Monday, who will claim opponents of Brexit are “relentlessly wanting to talk down our country” and insist that while there are challenges posed by Brexit, “we are working to fix them”.

From January, European businesses exporting plant and animal products to the UK will have to submit extra paperwork known as health certificates, with physical checks costing up to £43 coming into force from April.

The checks – which have been delayed repeatedly since the Brexit deal came into effect in January 2021 – were due to start this month but were pushed back in August amid warnings the strategy risks further pushing up food prices.

More on Brexit

The government has admitted the new system will add to inflation, but said this will be “minimal” at less than 0.2% over three years.

In her letter, Baroness Neville-Rolfe said the checks were required because since the UK left the EU “we have not had full biosecurity checks in place”, meaning it has become “more challenging to intervene to combat threats to animal, plant and human health”.

She pointed to the spread of pests and diseases across Europe – such as African Swine Fever – adding it would be “dangerous to underestimate the huge costs both to lives and livelihoods that an outbreak of these diseases could cause to the UK”.

The cabinet minister went on to to say that “around half” of the £330m figure is estimated to be on health certification, but this was a “saving” of £520m compared to a previous model that was going to be introduced in 2022.

However Ms Creasy suggested this was disingenuous as if the UK had not left the EU there would be no extra costs at all.

stella creasy
Image:
Stella Creasy chairs the Labour movement for Europe

She said: ‘The government thinks it can get away with presenting red tape worth £330m as a good news story because it could have been higher- forgetting that its all extra costs that businesses can ill afford when they have already had a massive increase in red tape thanks to Brexit.

“British companies struggling with border paperwork to import food will have little choice over these charges meaning it’s likely British consumers will have to pick up the bill. Ministers need to urgently rethink for the sake of all those already suffering in the cost of living crisis.”

Industry bodies have repeatedly warned the government’s new model would likely push up prices as businesses would not be able to swallow the associated costs.

But on the other hand the National Farmers Union (NFU) said the lack of controls put them at a commercial disadvantage as British exports to the EU have been subject to health and safety checks for three years “while the EU has enjoyed continued easy access to the UK marketplace.”

Read More:
Brexit: ‘We don’t want to diverge’ from EU, says Starmer
Poll suggests 9% of Britons think leaving EU a success

The checks on EU imports are legally required under the terms of the Brexit trade deal with the EU.

The BTOM, which will be a global regime, aims to use more technology and digitisation to reduce bureaucracy than under the original import model devised post-Brexit.

William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “If the border plans result in fast and effective controls, allowing the UK to take advantage of new digital trade arrangements, then additional costs will be slightly easier to swallow.”

However he added: “Coming in the middle of a cost of living crisis, and with inflation still high, we would urge the government to consider ways to mitigate this huge expense”, suggesting the inspection charges would be “a good place to start”.

The checks are one of 20 new major policy changes between now and the end of 2024 that will impact British companies that trade internationally, according to the Institute of Export & International Trade.

Marco Forgione, the organisation’s director, said the digitalisation of UK trade has the potential to add £25bn to the country’s GDP but businesses need certainty and support.

“The government cannot defer or delay any longer. They set out a timetable. They’ve got to stick with it,” he told Sky News.

Continue Reading

Politics

Bank of France wants EU crypto regulation under Paris-based ESMA

Published

on

By

Bank of France wants EU crypto regulation under Paris-based ESMA

Bank of France wants EU crypto regulation under Paris-based ESMA

The Bank of France’s governor called for crypto oversight to be given to the European Securities and Markets Authority, and for tightening MiCA’s rules on stablecoin issuance.

Continue Reading

Politics

New Japan PM may boost crypto economy, ‘refine’ blockchain regulations

Published

on

By

New Japan PM may boost crypto economy, ‘refine’ blockchain regulations

New Japan PM may boost crypto economy, ‘refine’ blockchain regulations

Takaichi’s election may have a “material impact” on the governance and regulatory perception of crypto assets in Japan, experts told Cointelegraph.

Continue Reading

Politics

Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last

Published

on

By

Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last

There’s no question that Kemi Badenoch’s on the ropes after a low-energy first year as leader that has seen the Conservative Party slide backwards by pretty much every metric.

But on Wednesday, the embattled leader came out swinging with a show-stopping pledge to scrap stamp duty, which left the hall delirious. “I thought you’d like that one,” she said with a laugh as party members cheered her on.

A genuine surprise announcement – many in the shadow cabinet weren’t even told – it gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.

Politics latest: Stamp duty to be axed under Tories

Ms Badenoch with her husband, Hamish. Pic: PA
Image:
Ms Badenoch with her husband, Hamish. Pic: PA

Ms Badenoch tried to answer that criticism this week with a policy blitz, headlined by her promise on stamp duty.

This is a leader giving her party some red meat to try to help her party at least get a hearing from the public, with pledges on welfare, immigration, tax cuts and policing.

In all of it, a tacit admission from Ms Badenoch and her team that as politics speeds up, they have not kept pace, letting Reform UK and Nigel Farage run ahead of them and grab the microphone by getting ahead of the Conservatives on scrapping net zero targets or leaving the ECHR in order to deport illegal migrants more easily.

Ms Badenoch is now trying to answer those criticisms and act.

At the heart of her offer is £47bn of spending cuts in order to pay down the nation’s debt pile and fund tax cuts such as stamp duty.

All of it is designed to try to restore the party’s reputation for economic competence, against a Labour Party of tax rises and a growing debt burden and a Reform party peddling “fantasy economics”.

She needs to do something, and fast. A YouGov poll released on the eve of her speech put the Conservatives joint third in the polls with the Lib Dems on 17%.

That’s 10 percentage points lower than when Ms Badenoch took power just under a year ago. The crisis, mutter her colleagues, is existential. One shadow cabinet minister lamented to me this week that they thought it was “50-50” as to whether the party can survive.

Read more from Sky News:
Starmer blames Tories for China spy trial being dropped
UK won’t give more visas to Indian workers, says PM

(L-R) Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins and shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly. Pic: PA
Image:
(L-R) Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins and shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly. Pic: PA

Ms Badenoch had to do two things in her speech on Wednesday: the first was to try to reassert her authority over her party. The second was to get a bit of attention from the public with a set of policies that might encourage disaffected Tories to look at her party again.

On the first point, even her critics would have to agree that she had a successful conference and has given herself a bit of space from the constant chatter about her leadership with a headline-grabbing policy that could give her party some much-needed momentum.

On the second, the promise of spending control coupled with a retail offer of tax cuts does carve out a space against the Labour government and Reform.

But the memory of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, the chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and the failure of Sunak to cut NHS waiting lists or tackle immigration still weigh on the Conservative brand.

Ms Badenoch might have revived the room with her speech, but whether that translates into a wider revival around the country is very hard to read.

Ms Badenoch leaves Manchester knowing she pulled off her first conference speech as party leader: what she will be less sure about is whether it will be her last.

I thought she tacitly admitted that to me when she pointedly avoided answering the question of whether she would resign if the party goes backwards further in the English council, Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections next year.

“Let’s see what the election result is about,” was her reply.

That is what many in her party are saying too, because if Ms Badenoch cannot show progress after 18 months in office, she might see her party turn to someone else.

Continue Reading

Trending