Commenting on today’s warnings from the Road Haulage Association and others about the problems of industry preparing for a no-deal Brexit, Tim Morris, Chief Executive of the UK Major Ports Group said “Regardless of your views on Brexit the right thing to do is to prepare for a range of Brexit outcomes and do so quickly. Most of Britain’s ports already successfully handle huge volumes of non-EU trade and have been working hard to prepare for Brexit. But as today’s statements from the Road Haulage Association and others make clear significant parts of UK business are not ready for Brexit and are facing difficulties in becoming so. The Government must do three very practical things as a matter of urgency to speed the preparation of UK business for Brexit:

• Reset the short-term border measures that were in place for March 29th to October 31st so industry has more certainty on what it’s preparing for;
• Substantially step up the information campaign on getting ready for Brexit and look at proactively issuing international trader registration numbers; and
• Make sure that short-term border measures for ferry ports apply to all ports so British business has the widest possible range of options for easier post-Brexit trading.”