Turning its back on nearly half a century in the European fold, the United Kingdom began on Friday, at the same time as 2021, its new life after Brexit, without immediate disruption but with many unknowns.
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A truck leaves the port of Calais for Great Britain on January 1st AFP
Thus, on Friday morning, while the first ferries left for France, the English port of Dover remained immersed in calm, without the congestion so feared after the United Kingdom left the single market and the customs union, and the entry into force of new formalities on both sides of the Channel.
Port of Dover this Friday January 1st AFP
Nearly 200 trucks have also used the Channel Tunnel at night, "without any problem" despite the re-establishment of customs formalities, according to its operator Getlink.
Low traffic at new year
Romanian driver Alexandru Mareci, 29, went the other way, arriving in Dover at dawn with his truck loaded with 23 tonnes of Moroccan tomatoes.
“Everything was normal,” he told AFP.
“Of course, how many people do you know who are working for the New Year?
We do not know how (Brexit) will go in the future, ”he notes, admitting not knowing the new formalities introduced by the British authorities for transit in the south of England.
If the trade agreement concluded in extremis with Brussels does not provide for quotas or customs duties and avoids a devastating “no deal”, the upheaval is real.
Free movement of goods and people alike to cross the border unimpeded has ceased - except between Spain and the British enclave of Gibraltar, as well as between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
But if calm reigns on Friday, disruptions around the ports are anticipated with the resumption of full activity next week, if the new formalities slow down traffic and lengthen the lines of trucks.
Thus, the port of Holyhead, an important terminal in Wales, near Ireland, could experience "delays over the next few weeks," warned the Welsh road information center on Twitter.
Six loads were refused there on Friday because they were not in order.
“We are now going to see the € 80 billion of trade across the Irish Sea between the UK and Ireland disrupted by a lot more checks and declarations, bureaucracy and red tape, and costs and delays ”, regretted the head of Irish diplomacy, Simon Coveney, on the BBC.
In Ireland, an association of carriers expressed fears of weeks of "mess" in the ports.
Unlike the EU, the British government has decided to gradually implement customs controls, which will not affect all goods until July.