Disagreements over ink colour on post-Brexit forms ‘hitting exports’

Disagreements over the colour of INK used on official post-Brexit paperwork are hitting exports, industry chiefs warn as they say as soon as one problem is fixed ‘another two crop up’

  • Post-Brexit paperwork and new checks have been blamed for slowing exports
  • Trade chiefs said today disagreements over ink also hitting movement of goods
  • They said it is like ‘whack-a-mole’ with new problems arising when one is solved 

Squabbling over the colour of the ink used on post-Brexit customs forms is one of the many problems slowing down UK exports to Europe, a Scottish trade body warned today.

Trade chiefs said UK exporters are facing a ‘whack-a-mole’ situation where as soon as one issue is resolved ‘another two crop up at the same time’. 

Scotland Food and Drink chief executive James Withers told MSPs the sector has faced approximately £1million in lost sales every day during ‘an absolutely dreadful first few weeks of trading in this post-Brexit world’.

He said that among the ‘catalogue of problems that have just been racking up day by day’ since the new trade deal with the EU kicked in on January 1 is an ‘ongoing debate about whether forms should be filled in in red ink or blue ink’.

Post-Brexit paperwork and new customs checks have been blamed for disruption at UK borders. The finishing industry has been one of the worst affected

Industry bosses warned throughout January of exporters facing disruption at the border because of new paperwork requirements and checks, with the fishing industry particularly badly affected. 

Giving evidence to Holyrood’s Europe Committee, Mr Withers explained: ‘You think you get the right colour of ink and you’re told that the signature needs to be in a different colour to the colour that the letterhead is on.

‘Part of the challenge here – particularly the other side of the channel – is you’ve got a lot of young, inexperienced customs agents.

‘You can get a view on colour on one particular day, but then the shift changes the next day in Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais or Dunkirk, and you get a different kind of interpretation.

‘It’s extremely difficult for businesses to plan and that’s why this hasn’t just been an issue for small businesses; even big multinational companies who have got export departments, who have got export paperwork in their DNA because they sell into North America and China, have found the system’s fallen down and loads are getting held up.’

Mr Withers also cited IT system failures affecting the UK and French governments, and warned that the situation was likely to get worse before it gets better.

He added: ‘The problems are multiple and at no one point, so it’s very difficult to target the solution very quickly at one thing.

‘It’s like whack-a-mole: a problem crops up, you hit it on the head and fix it and then another two crop up at the same time.’

Meanwhile, Charlie Adam, vice president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in Scotland, revealed exports of meat are currently down to 25 per cent of the normal volume.

Discussing the possibility of the sector returning to levels of business seen before Brexit and the pandemic, he said: ‘I’m hearing that that is something that may never happen because for some of the smaller producers, they simply mean give up trying or they may lose their markets.

‘I think it’s important to emphasise all this that whereas we may be told that these are teething troubles, or that they’re down to Covid-19, it is simply is not the case.

‘This is about serious structural issues and problems that need to be addressed. I would also say that it’s about urgency. 

‘The UK Government are saying that “you know these things will be addressed and there are changes due to come in April”, but that’s too late.

‘If people have lost that business in the meantime, they may not get it back – people will go to other suppliers and once you lose that business is very hard to get it back.’