Johnson government delays Brexit controls to avoid food shortages

The pandemic has become the camouflage and excuse for many of the political troubles Boris Johnson faces.

This is demonstrated by the latest unilateral decision adopted by Downing Street, announced this Tuesday, by which customs and sanitary controls on food from the continent will be delayed for up to half a year, as agreed in the Brexit negotiation.

“We want companies to focus on recovery rather than dealing with all the new demands at the border.

That is why we have developed a new, more pragmatic calendar for the introduction of customs controls ”, justified David Frost, the Secretary of State for EU Affairs.

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According to the announced change in criteria, full customs declarations will remain mandatory as of January 1, 2022, but the safety controls of various food products from the EU will be delayed in their implementation. Sanitary export certificates, or

controls

of sanitary or phytosanitary products, scheduled for next October 1 or for January 1, are delayed until July of next year. The Johnson administration is desperately trying to reduce shortage problems in supermarkets and restaurants, which are beginning to become a political headache.

"We are seeing increased pressure on the global supply chain, caused by a range of factors including the pandemic and increased international transportation costs," explained the minister without portfolio, Penny Mordaunt, whose symbolic position of

(Responsible for the Payment of Public Salaries and Pensions) has become an office of support for the internal economic transition derived from Brexit. “All these pressures especially affect the agri-food sector. For this reason, the Government has decided to delay some of the new controls, especially those referring to sanitary and phytosanitary goods ”, Mordaunt specified.

Paradoxically, it is the British industry that the Brexit champions promised to defend tooth and nail against the “bureaucracy and rigidity” of Brussels that has been most irritated by the announced delay of controls. The Johnson Administration's new Immigration Act greatly restricts the possibility of hiring community workers that were available each season: pickers, transporters or waiters. There is plenty of meat, fish or vegetables to supply much of the country, but little means to deliver everything on time.

"The asymmetric nature of customs controls imposed on imports and exports will distort the market, placing many UK producers at a disadvantage compared to their competitors in the EU," denounced Ian Wright, executive director of the Federation. of Food and Beverages of the United Kingdom.

Wright confronted the Johnson government a few days ago by warning that "the time when the British consumer was used to finding any product on the shelves of supermarkets had come to an end."

The combination of the pandemic and Brexit, Wright denounced, could make the lack of supply that has been living in the country for weeks “permanent”.

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