A FURTHER extension to post-Brexit border controls for goods being imported from the EU to the UK has been touted as a “bitter blow” to Scottish farmers and food and drink producers.

Scottish exporters to the EU have been met with additional costs and burdens since January 2021, however the UK Government has this week granted that EU businesses will be given a further grace period until equivalent import checks come in to force, with controls now to be phased in across 2022.

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Industry leaders have criticised the move for ‘handing over a competitive advantage’ to EU exporters whilst Scottish farming and food and drink exporters continue to be subject to the extra costs of a one-way system.

Commenting on the announcement, NFU Scotland Chief Executive Scott Walker said: “Those in Scotland and the rest of the UK who have been looking to export to the EU in the past nine months have had to endure crippling post-Brexit costs, additional delays and extra bureaucracy, while those in the EU selling goods here have been largely unaffected.

“Government promises that asymmetric trade would be addressed and a level playing field on costs and paperwork introduced at the start of October have once again been delayed,” he continued.

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Changes to import controls from the EU were due to be introduced on October 1, and will now not come in to force until January 2022, with others changes delayed until July 2022.

“Ultimately, we need to see a level playing field on trade between the UK and the EU and we need both parliaments to do considerably more to ensure that as much unnecessary bureaucracy and cost is stripped out as possible.”

Chief Executive of Scotland Food and Drink, James Withers wrote recently on Twitter that if further delays were agreed then it would ‘continue one of the starkest Brexit contradictions.’

“When it comes to food and drink, ‘take control of our borders’ actually meant the EU taking control of theirs and the UK waving everything through with no checks,” he wrote.

“A delay might be right given labour shortages in the food supply chain,” he continued, adding that Brexit was one of the biggest causes of this.

“But a delay continues to hand a competitive advantage to EU exporters. They can sell to us with no extra costs, while we face all the trade barriers selling to them.”

However, the UK Government claims the revised timetable will allow businesses more time to adjust to the new process.

“We want businesses to focus on their recovery from the pandemic rather than have to deal with new requirements at the border, which is why we’ve set out a pragmatic new timetable for introducing full border controls,” announced UK Minister of State at the Cabinet Office, Lord Frost.

“Businesses will now have more time to prepare for these controls which will be phased in throughout 2022.

“The government remains on track to deliver the new systems, infrastructure and resourcing required,” he concluded.