"British vets have been forced to chase lorries down the motorway on their way to Dover due to the pure hell of Brexit paperwork needed by inspectors in Calais, MPs have been told. Toby Ovens of Broughton Transport told the business and trade committee that Brexit has been a costly and logistic nightmare and hopes of a reset with the EU represented light at the end of the tunnel."
"Brandishing a wad of paperwork with 26 stamps compared to one sheet needed before Brexit, Ovens criticised the post-Brexit bureaucracy he faced when shipping lamb and beef to the continent. I've had vets chasing lorries down the M4 because they have suddenly realised they didn't put the stamp in the right place on a piece of paper. His worst experience was a truck full of frozen meat held in Calais for 27 days due to a paperwork error."
"He ended up having to charge his customer 16,000 to have drivers sit with the refrigerated truck in Calais for the month. He said trucks were being detained at Calais before Christmas because inspectors would not accept new UK paperwork for BSE clearance. In the end they rerouted one lorry in Chippenham for a meeting with a vet who handed over a bundle of new BSE certificates to take to Calais for the trucks being detained in the port."
Vets have chased lorries down motorways to Dover after Calais inspectors rejected post-Brexit veterinary paperwork. Exporters now face complex paperwork with dozens of stamps instead of a single pre-Brexit sheet. Frozen meat shipments have been detained for weeks for paperwork errors, one truck held 27 days, incurring 16,000 in costs for drivers to remain with the load. Trucks were detained when inspectors refused new UK BSE paperwork, prompting ad hoc rerouting and manual handover of certificates. Red tape has added an estimated 8.4bn in costs, with goods trade down 18% and food and drink down 24% over five years. Negotiations on a new veterinary agreement will begin in London and Brussels.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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