UK officials are weighing options to blunt the cost of post-Brexit border checks on European food imports due to start in January. In particular, PM Sunak’s government has in recent weeks been studying the potential impact of the measures, which include physical examinations and extra paperwork and are set to be phased-in from October, people familiar with the discussions said. The controls will add to costs for importers that may then be passed onto consumers, even as the Bank of England struggles to get stubbornly high inflation under control.
The checks on agricultural food products and livestock, which the UK committed to imposing as part of its 2020 Brexit agreement with the European Union, have already been postponed five times. The government delayed the measures for more than a year after concluding that they would add at least $1.3 billion in annual costs to British importers.
Source: bnnbloomberg.ca