Why a no-deal Brexit WON’T stop us from having a Mars a day
HOW ridiculous to claim we won’t be able to buy Mars bars if there is a no-deal Brexit as the ingredients are shipped from the EU (Mail). Cocoa comes from West Africa and after we leave the EU there will be no embargo on bringing in finished chocolate from other countries. The honey and nuts needed for the nougat filling can be sourced from North America and Australia. Sugar beet is grown in the UK, while cane sugar is available from Commonwealth islands in the Caribbean. Why would the Port of Dover suddenly refuse to accept imports of these ingredients? And why would the Government instruct the port to do so? What possible mechanism would exist that on day one of Brexit, shipments that passed freely through the port the day before just stopped? Or is it being suggested that the EU will ban exports of goods from Calais as some form of punishment blockade? Even assuming the Government decides to levy tariffs, truck drivers won’t have to get out their wallets to pay at the port. Like VAT, tariffs are added to the final bill when the receiving company pays its import bill. Inspection of trucks at ports is on the basis of criminal activity intelligence. Rotterdam allows tonnes of goods from outside the EU to pass through the port to holding areas for inspection. It’s time to stop the Brexit scaremongering.
JOHN HARFIELD, Harlington, Beds. HOW are we going to survive without our diet of Mars bars if supplies of the ingredients are prevented from coming into Dover? What tosh! Chocolate, nougat and caramel don’t have to come from the EU. Will Dover be blockaded by the warships of the EU? The list of other products that have been claimed could be in short supply after Brexit include oil. Do we get our supplies from France or Spain? We do get some oil from Norway — would they bow to pressure from the EU? As for Mars bars, they are the most insipid and sugary of all confections, so I wouldn’t miss them at all.
LIONEL HOLLAND, Worcester Park, Surrey. CAN we have another Mars probe — into why they keep getting smaller?
ANTONY DEAN, Keighley, W. Yorks. AFTER a holiday in Australia, I brought home eight bars of Cadbury chocolate made to the old recipe without palm oil. My grandchildren did a blind tasting with UK Cadbury products and the Aussie versions won hands down. TRICIA CANNON, Newport, Shropshire.