Transporters fear border bottlenecks will worsen

Border delays for traders moving goods into Northern Ireland risk spreading stock shortages across Britain within days unless action is taken, hauliers have warned.

The disruption was described as a ‘‘disaster’’ Thursday, local time.

Ministers were urged to ensure that problems such as confusion over paperwork and too few vets for inspections, are fixed swiftly, before trade flows rise.

‘‘It’s really worrying and it needs to be resolved quickly,’’ Rod McKenzie, of the Road Haulage Association, said. ‘‘The volumes are low everywhere. That won’t last and can’t last.’’

Steve Rowe, the chief executive of Marks & Spencer, said that the ‘‘fine print’’ of the deal with the EU would force many companies to choose between paying customs duties or relocating to the Continent.

Boris Johnson said the accord would mean ‘‘no palisade of tariffs’’, but retailers have complained of complex requirements on the specific origins of products to qualify as duty-free.

Operators seeking to transport goods into Northern Ireland have bemoaned ‘‘almost unworkable’’ processes introduced after the Brexit transition period ended on

December 31. ‘‘On the ground it’s a disaster,’’ the boss of one leading haulage firm said. ‘‘We’re just grinding to a halt.’’

The executive, who asked not to be identified for fear it would draw him into a political row, said that booking 10 trailers on to a boat used to take five minutes.

‘‘To do that now has taken us all day, with two people.’’ It was more than just teething problems, he said, and would be resolved only by fundamental changes to the arrangements. ‘‘The whole system is just cumbersome. It is hindering trade,’’ he added.

Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, and Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, spoke to Irish industry leaders Thursday .

Many companies that stockpiled goods before Brexit are delaying imports or exports, McKenzie said. ‘‘At some point they’ll have to start trading again. That’s when the little problems we’ve got now become very large.’’

Marks & Spencer has dismissed claims that the Brexit deal means duty-free trade with the EU. ‘‘Tarifffree does not feel like tariff-free when you read the fine print,’’ Rowe said.

‘‘For big businesses there will be time-consuming workarounds but for a lot of others this means paying tariffs or rebasing into the EU.’’

–