LONDON: Britain is preparing to spend nearly US$140 million to charter extra ferries for freight shipments to Europe in the event that a no-deal Brexit creates bottlenecks at its ports, the BBC has reported.
Just three months before the UK is scheduled to exit the Eurpean Union, the risk of a no-deal Brexit is rising and becoming a nightmare scenario for businesses, which are now planning for an economic shock.
Extra ships will be needed to work new routes across the Channel in the event that key terminals, at Calais in France and Dover and Folkestone in England, are clogged because of additional customs checks.
Currently, Britain's membership of the EU means that trucks drive smoothly through border checks within the bloc. But in a no-deal Brexit, even a few minutes’ delay at customs for each truck would mean vehicles backing up at ports and queuing on feeder roads on both sides of the Channel.
The Department for Transport has awarded contracts worth a total of £108 million to Brittany Ferries of France, the Danish shipping firm DFDS and UK-based Seaborne Freight for roll-on roll-off ferries to carry about 4,000 extra trucks a week from Portsmouth, Plymouth and Poole should the UK lack a post-Brexit agreement with the European Union, the BBC said.
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable decried the deals as anther example of the Conservative government’s failure to resolve the issues related to leaving the European Union.
“The government has the power to stop no-deal at any time but instead is spending millions in last-minute contracts,” he told the BBC. “The fact that this money is predominantly going to European companies is nothing short of ironic, reducing Britain to a laughing stock on the global stage.”
Bloomberg News reported last month that UK government officials were making contingency plans to mitigate effects such as border controls and congestion that a Brexit without an agreement would have on its ports after March 29.
“This significant extra capacity is a small but important element of the Department for Transport’s no-deal Brexit planning,” according to an emailed statement from the DfT, which said the additional capacity was about 10% of existing traffic at Dover.
The agreements will ensure that shipments of vital goods continue even without a Brexit accord, the department said.
The contracts were not put out to tender. The department said it was responding to a “situation of extreme urgency” brought about by “unforeseeable events”.
About 16,000 trucks pass between Dover and Calais every day, transporting everything from perishable food to medicines and the industrial goods needed to keep factories running.
“While remaining committed to working to ensure a [Brexit] deal is reached, the department is helping ensure the rest of government are fully prepared for a range of scenarios," the DfT statement added.
Earlier this month, the government announced that all departments must step up planning for a no-deal Brexit, including putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption.