London announced a plan on Wednesday to simplify customs controls to or from the European Union after Brexit. The plan comes a few days after traffic across the Channel at Dover was severely disrupted, including huge delays and chaos.
“Our approach is to minimize the burden on importers and exporters while maintaining border security while adhering to international standards,” a Downing Street statement said. “The government will enter into dialogue with the sector for six weeks before coming up with a final version” of the plan, which will then be introduced from the end of October. The reform comes with “an investment of more than a billion pounds” to optimize customs technology.
The simplification is based on a risk assessment. Live animals, germinated products, animal products and plants will be classified into high, medium or low risk categories and controls will also be tailored to the country of origin.
The government of Rishi Sunak is also working on a program to ensure that “authorised” companies producing plant or animal products qualify for less stringent controls: in return they will have to provide “additional guarantees and proof that they comply with standards and requirements”.
Finally, the reform also envisages a single commercial counter for both imports and exports. “We are going to reduce the required security data from the current 37 fields to 24, with 13 fields becoming optional,” the government’s statement said.
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