Will ‘Re-Set’ Resolve Bust-Ups About Mixed BTOM?

Dan Culverhouse, UK&I managing director of Customs Support, considers if the new government’s ‘re-set’ on Europe will reduce border confusion In August, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told us he was in ‘re-set mode’ for the UK’s relationship with Europe when he met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for the sixth time since taking office in July. On the table for discussion was the fostering of better post-Brexit working arrangements, as UK businesses continue to endure long border delays more than four years after Britain exited the EU. 

These delays, it has to be said, have not been helped by the much-hyped Border Target Operating Model (BTOM), which seem to have created more confusion and less resolution for cross border trade.  Bodies including the Fresh Produce Consortium and the Chartered Institute of Export and Trade (CIET) have both found their members at the sharp end of border delays because of the seemingly mixed ‘best practice’ messaging issued by Defra for goods leaving and entering the UK. According to the CIET, following the introduction of inspections for medium-risk plants and animal products, Defra advised traders sending goods to consider their choice of border control post (BCP) by saying consignments need to enter GB “at a point of entry with an appropriately designated BCP.”  

However, it also said traders need to send goods to the same BCP they nominated in the Common Health Entry Document (CHED) that accompanies medium-risk and high-risk goods.  Consequently, this caused costly confusion when traders selected a BCP not equipped to process their goods.  The Netherlands is the one of the world’s largest plant and flower exporters, while the UK is the second-biggest importers of cut flowers from that region, which is why another example of confusion is growing into a major issue for Anglo-Dutch relations.

Lorry drivers from the Netherlands could refuse UK deliveries following a barrage of complaints about conditions and processes at the UK’s BCPs. Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN), a trade body which represents roughly 5,000 transport companies, said its members reported average waits of four hours at facilities at Sevington, the government-run facility that serves the Port of Dover, with some delayed for as long as 20 hours. In addition to concerns about the conditions for drivers, with Sevington’s waiting room containing nothing but a water cooler and nowhere to buy food, problems have also arisen with border processes.

One TLN member said a shipment of plants worth GBP34,000 had been rejected due to damage sustained during the BCP inspection process. Other TLN members have called for private BCPs to be more up-front about the costs associated with inspections. Some reported receiving bills as high as GBP800 following a delivery, with no explanation as to which checks were carried out to generate such a high fee.

As a business specialising in seamless and automated cross-border resolutions aiming to optimise supply chain efficiency, our clients look to us to resolve these challenges so that they can focus on their core activity of growing their products and their businesses on both sides of the Channel. Transparency is everything and businesses need expertise to optimise supply chains rather than the seemingly Kafkaesque opacity and bureaucratic processes they now face. Overall, the government’s re-set is an opportunity to create better cross channel collaboration in a post-Brexit world – but four years on, the day-to-day reality is that the BTOMs of this world are bureaucracy-speak, a language which stands alone from any current European mother tongue. 

It is expertise and specialism that will always create the right bi-lingual translation to trump the simple and performative posturing of European leaders.

For more information about Customs Support Group, visit www.customssupport.com.

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