Transition deal will be ‘status quo’ for customs

Philip Hammond has said a post-brexit transition phase will “need to look a lot like the status quo” in a signal that the UK could keep the same customs regime for several years after Brexit.

The Chancellor told a House of Lords Committee that new customs checks delaying lorries for only minutes “could not be accommodated” at the port of Dover if they were imposed in March 2019, when the UK is set to leave the EU.

Remaining within EU customs arrangements would delay the UK’S ability to implement new trade deals with third countries.

“It would not make sense to ask business to face two sets of changes and that implies that a transition or interim period would need to look a lot like the status quo,” Mr Hammond said.

“Otherwise businesses will be making one set of changes at the beginning of the interim period and another set towards the end of it.”