‘Customs system will take two years to set up if no deal’

IT will take two years to have a fully operational customs system at the UK border if the UK crashes out of the European Union without a deal, officials have said.

MPs were told that “functioning but clearly sub-optimal” arrangements could be in place on March 29, 2019 when the UK leaves but there would be a risk of failing to collect tariffs owed on imports. Officials also said the prospect of traffic chaos at ports was a “known unknown” and could not be ruled out.

HM Revenue and Customs chief executive Jon Thompson told MPs: “The date for putting in an optimal customs system for the UK in the event of no deal was passed months ago.”

Appearing before the Treasury Select Committee he was asked about the prospect of queues at ports.

“It is plausible that there would be delays at the border,” he said. “It’s very difficult to answer your question because we have a known unknown.

“If you are going to go from Dover to Calais, you cannot know exactly how the French authorities would react when your lorry arrives there.”

Senior HMRC official Jim Harra told the committee: “We have in place plans that in the event of us leaving on March 29 with no deal, we will be able to operate a functioning customs border with the EU.”

He added: “We would start off with a functioning but clearly sub-optimal customs border. There would likely be some fiscal risk attached to that depending on what tariff decisions are.”

“Over time there would be improvements but I think we are looking at a minimum of two years from the no-deal to get to a point where you can say we have a steady-state system where we are comfortable that we can manage all the fiscal risks in a way we would like and trade can flow in the way we would like.”