As issues around delays at Beitbridge continue to grab the headlines, the UK is preparing for its own post-Brexit border chaos.
Robert Keen, director general of the British International Freight Association (Bifa), says that the country’s National Audit Office assessment of widespread border disruption at the end of the post-EU exit transition corresponds with what it is hearing from its member who believe that it will take some time for a fully functioning border to be put in place.
“Bifa anticipates that the businesses that use its members' freight forwarding and logistics services to conduct cross-border trade between the EU and the UK will feel the impact of a sub-optimal border to varying degrees,” says Keen.
And while the UK government has increasingly been putting in place coping responses where it can, there’s some scepticism about how effective they will be.
“With less than two months to go to the end of the transition period, Bifa members are still waiting for the government to provide complete information and clarity on the processes by which cross-border trade will be conducted at the end of the year: the systems that will underpin those processes and assurance that those systems, which have yet to be tested, will actually work and be able to do what is necessary.”
