Post-Brexit checks on goods entering Britain from the EU were first supposed to be implemented in January 2021. After serial postponements, they were due to begin next month. Now it has been postponed again: it will not happen before 2024.
Goods moving in the other direction are already subject to customs paperwork, making life difficult for UK exporters and pushing some out of business altogether. Ministers have recognized that British consumers and businesses could do without the same penalty being applied to imports. The government admits that import checks would stoke inflation. This is a quiet acknowledgment that friction between the UK and the trading bloc on its doorstep is a drag on the economy.
Last month, the government abandoned plans to require a UK-specific quality assurance mark for goods sold in Britain, recognizing that the European CE mark will suffice ‘indefinitely’. That was a belated recognition that exporting businesses would need the European certification anyway and none wanted the additional cost of a superfluous UKCA mark.
Source: theguardian.com
