For the fourth time, the UK has put back the imposition of border checks on food and animal products coming in from the European Union.
While the EU, determined to maintain its high health and hygiene standards, introduced such checks on products from the UK immediately after Brexit, UK ministers now propose not to reciprocate until the end of 2023, three years after the end of the Brexit transition period.
And then only with a fully digitised system that will make the ports’ new, unused expensive border posts, taxpayer-subsidised to the tune of £200 million, permanently redundant.
British farmers warn that the move jeopardises bio-safety standards and puts their exports, faced with rigorous testing to enter the EU, at a permanent competitive disadvantage.
A spokesman for British vets said the move "flies in the face" of commitments to high levels of animal and human health at a time when diseases like African swine fever have had a catastrophic impact in parts of Europe. Angry representatives of the ports say they will seek to recoup from the state the substantial investments they have made in facilities and staff.
The decision subcontracts to the EU responsibility for UK sanitary and phytosanitary standards. Not to worry, says Jacob Rees-Mogg, the UK’s “Brexit opportunities minister” and a leading Brexit proponent, the EU is “a highly regulated market” – the same regulatory regime which was one of the main justifications for leaving.
He added that he would prefer two-way free trade, but “just because one country has protectionism doesn’t mean you should be protectionist too. The EU has always been a protectionist racket.” A well-regulated protectionist racket?
Brussels regards the UK's decision not to check imports as a matter for itself, but is watching anxiously to see if London intends, as prime minister Boris Johnson has threatened, separately to undo Northern Ireland protocol legislation that requires, on the EU's behalf, the UK to check goods crossing the Irish Sea. Doing that would precipitate another big row.