UK to ditch physical checks on EU imports

Digital border to be created with rest of the world to cut queues and smooth trade, says Whitehall

Britain will build a digital border with the rest of the world next year, the Government has announced, as it ditched post-brexit plans to impose physical checks on EU imports. Jacob Rees-mogg said the UK would not impose new controls on EU goods this year in order to curb the soaring cost of living caused by the war in Ukraine. The Minister for Brexit Opportunities said that forgoing the checks would save British business up to £1billion a year in costs.

BRITAIN will build a digital border with the rest of the world next year, the Government has announced, as it ditched post-brexit plans to impose physical checks on EU imports.

Jacob Rees-mogg said the UK would not impose new controls on EU goods this year in order to curb the soaring cost of living caused by the war in Ukraine. The Minister for Brexit Opportunities said forgoing the checks would save British business up to £1billion a year in costs.

Checks will be introduced before the end of 2023, but Whitehall sources revealed they will be almost entirely virtual rather than physical.

“Our goal is to create a seamless new ‘digital’ border, where technologies and real-time data will cut queues and smooth trade,” the Government said, as it backed a “maximum facilitation” or “max fac” border for Britain.

British farmers and exporters complained the new plans put them at a competitive disadvantage to European rivals, and port bosses said hundreds of millions of pounds had been wasted on building unnecessary infrastructure.

UK exports to the EU have faced checks since the start of 2021, when the trade deal with Brussels took effect.

“Technological solutions” to reduce border friction were dismissed by the EU as “magical thinking” when Britain suggested they could be used to prevent a hard Irish border. The new radical plan is “absolutely” intended to show that the EU was wrong to reject the proposals in favour of the Irish Sea border created by the Northern Ireland Protocol, sources said.

Boris Johnson was convinced to back the idea, sources said, after the Prime Minister was assured that the technology could be deployed by the end of next year. EU officials said in 2017 the necessary technology did not exist.

A source said there would still be a “tiny fraction” of spot checks to try and minimise risk.

The technology, based around a global digitised trusted trader scheme allowing for pre-certification of imports, was “almost” ready, sources said.

Mr Rees-mogg told MPS: “It’s precisely because of Brexit that we’re able to build this Uk-focused system.”

Tim Morris, chief executive of Major Ports Group, said ports had put over £100million into building facilities including Border Control Posts (BCPS). A further £194million of taxpayer money was pumped into BCPS, and £250million put towards various facilities further inland – meaning up to half a billion pounds may have been squandered.

The National Farmers’ Union said scrapping the checks in favour of an unknown system was “unacceptable”.

“These checks are absolutely crucial to the nation’s biosecurity, animal health and food safety and without them we really do leave ourselves at risk,” Minette Batters, the National Farmers’ Union president, said.

Shane Brennan, chief executive pf the Cold Chain Federation, said: “We very much welcome this decision – despite all the hard work preparing, it was clear that the July vet controls would have had a devastating effect on the ability of our food businesses to import goods that UK consumers want.”