EU 'ready' for full Brexit border checks next year, Barnier claims

The European Union will introduce full border checks with the UK on January 1, despite Britain introducing customs controls on EU goods more slowly and whether or not the two sides agree a trade deal. Michel Barnier warned a House of Lords Committee that Brussels “will not delay things”, despite a Government U-Turn, which meant full controls on imports to the UK not being imposed for another six months after the EU. The UK announced a gradual three phased implementation of border checks in June after previously insisting that checks would be inevitable. Full border checks will now only apply on EU goods entering the UK from July 2021. The EU’s chief negotiator told peers that the EU was, in contrast to the UK, ready for Britain to leave the Customs Union and Single Market at the end of the transition period on January 1. The European Commission official said that every UK product imported into the EU would face checks once the Brexit transition period finished at the end of the year, whether there was a trade deal or not. “All products coming into the Single Market through the borders in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France or elsewhere will have to be checked, which of course is not the case today,” Mr Barnier said, according to a transcript of the June 23 meeting, which was published on Monday. “We have recruited customs officers, 750 in the Netherlands, 700 in France, close to 400 in Belgium and many in Ireland as well, because we will have to carry out checks on products coming into the European Union,” Mr Barnier said. “We are ready,” Mr Barnier said, “everyone has to accept their responsibilities. We have accepted ours.” Customs and haulage industry leaders warned in May that the UK was falling “many thousands” short of its target to train an estimated 50,000 new customs agents that would be needed after Brexit. British businesses fear that the UK government's planned entirely new IT system to check goods heading to the European Union won't be ready in time, it was reported last week.