Ministers are considering pushing for the fourth time to introduce full controls on EU imports, which are expected to take effect on July 1st, as part of an effort to tackle trade frictions and the cost-of-living crisis, officials said. informed about the discussions. Jacob Rees-Mogg, Brexit Minister for Opportunities, argued in a private meeting this week that one advantage of leaving the EU would be to allow Britain to apply only loose controls on imports. Goods arriving from the EU are not subject to safety and security declarations, while food and plant products are not physically controlled. According to officials, senior officials at number 10 are “sympathetic” to the idea of ​​further delays beyond July for new checks. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has not yet made a specific decision, but is called upon to extend the “grace period” for EU imports by Rees-Mogg and former Brexit minister Lord David Frost. “Ministers are looking at it again in the light of the pressures on the cost of living and the pressures on the supply chain. “The war in Ukraine has also changed the economic context,” said one aide, adding that Britain had done so without control in recent decades. British exports to the EU have been subject to full EU border controls since the first day of Brexit in January 2020 – while imports from European competitors have enjoyed much smoother entry into the UK. The audits were delayed for the first time in June 2020, followed by further extensions in March 2021 and again in September 2021. Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, said a full veterinary check on food imports from the EU would lead to a “supply collapse” for UK businesses based on frequent deliveries of small quantities of fresh food from the EU. EU. “Given the continuing inflationary costs and supply chain stress, a further delay is reasonable, even if it perpetuates the continuing injustice between the experience of EU importers and British exporters,” he said.

James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food and Drink, said any decision to delay would anger many exporters. “There is a logic to the supply chain fluctuations created by the crisis in Ukraine, but there is no doubt that this will get stuck in the throats of many exporters who are now 15 months into a tsunami of bureaucracy that our non-EU competitors are facing.” he said. However, the Food and Beverage Federation, the UK’s main retailer of food processors, said that while full controls were important in the long run, the crisis in Ukraine – which is particularly damaging to wheat, sunflower and whitefish supplies – justifies . Britain’s commercial performance has recovered from the pandemic much more slowly than the corresponding developed economies. The Office for Budget Responsibility, the Independent Financial Supervisor, last week argued that “leaving the EU would result in the UK’s total imports and exports being 15 per cent lower than the UK had remains a Member State “. A person close to Rees-Mogg said the “self-imposed cost” was disproportionate to the risks on the ground. “At a time of high and rising inflation and supply chain difficulties, we must not introduce cumbersome controls that will cost us, our businesses and our consumers,” he said. His position echoes that of Frost, who said last month: “We have to put up with EU controls. But. . . we should have a light border with the whole world. “This is an opportunity for Brexit.” Rees-Mog urged fellow ministers to wait for the conclusions of government plans to digitize border procedures to create “the most effective borders in the world” by 2025, for which he is now responsible.