Ok, I'll start with the basics. Has mentioned previously agri-food products are mainly spit into 2 categories; POAO (Animal Origin) and FNAO (Non-Animal Origin) and these can include anything (e.g. POAO - meat, hunting trophies, beeswax; FNAO - berries, nuts, plastic Tupperware, water etc.). These checks apply to products entering the EU from a Third Country (this bit is important)
All food business operators must meet the requirements of Regulation (EC) 178/2002 when importing food products from Third Countries with Article 11 & 12 covering Imports and Exports, as well as Article 18 on the Traceability with those requirements set out in Regulation (EU) 921/2011. Official Controls on such products being imported into the EU is covered by Regulation (EU) 2017/625, this establishes an harmonised approach and creation of some other procedures and standards (including the introduction of IMSOC. Import Controls are contained within Articles 43-76 if you want to read up on them.
When importing such goods as POAO a Health Certificate need to be signed by an Official Delegate from the Country of Origin, stating that the goods meet the conditions of Regulation (EC) 852/2004, the Health Certificate needs to be a certain format as per Regulation (EU) 2019/628 and not all countries are authorised to import into the EU, they must meet the requirements of Regulation (EC) 852/2004 & 853/2004, and be audited on a regular basis to ensure standards are maintained, a list of authorised 3rd Countries can be found in Regulation (EU) 2019/626.
When these goods are imported they must enter the UK through a Border Control Post, such posts are manned by Port Health Authorities under the supervision of Official Veterinarian; however, the must be built by the Port Operator. BCP's must meet the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2019/1014, again to regular audits.
Foods Not of Animal origin are maintained with Regulation (EU) 2019/1783 Appendix 1 & 2; this list is updated on a 6 month basis and is country and product specific (eg. figs from Turkey maybe subject to enhance controls but figs from another country are fine). For certain FNAO products a Health Certificate and results of Sampling and Analysis need to be provided, for others they just need a declaration (referred to as a CHED-D, which is also required for other FNAO products, POAO products are notified via a CVED (soon to be CHED-P and CHED-A for Live Animals).
All products entering from 3rd country require Official Controls as per Regulation (EU) 2017/625; these checks include 100% documentary and percentage based (from those regulations) Identity and Physical/Sampling. For products which pose instant danger to human health (such as the beef issue with brazil a couple of years back, then they are subject 100% physical/sampling checks.
I haven't discussed the IUU Fishing regulations, and I'm not going to.
So that's a very brief (hopefully easily digested) overview of what happens for agri-food products. There's a lot behind the scenes when you tuck into that Tuna butty.
Now on January 1st 2020 we, the UK, will be treated as a Third Country so all those checks will be imposed on British agri-food products. The absolute kicker is that so will the EU. So at present somewhere like Liverpool deals with 2000-3000 consignments year at present, come January that will jump to around 42,000 from the all the European traffic that enters our Port (plus that doesn't count the potential FNAO products which would not on any list). All of those goods will be subject to all those pieces of legislation.
The BCP cannot handle that traffic, its not big enough. The same for Hull, Southampton, Dover and a host of other ports around the country. Even Felixstowe and Harwich will struggle to handle additional cargo from the EU
But we haven't even mentioned the Irish routes yet, they arrive in totally different parts of the Port (one in Birkenhead even), there's no infrastructure there and the goods cannot be transferred to the current BCP for 3 reasons;
Reason 1 - the BCP will not be able to handle the increase in containerised traffic never mind additional Irish traffic
Reason 2 - Irish traffic is not containerised, it will not fit on the BCP
Reason 3 - the best till last, all ferry terminals are outside of the custom controlled area. You cannot enter a customs controlled area willy-nilly. Its like walking through Customs at the airport and trying to leave and come back in
So now we have all these goods which are subject to checks, that can't be checked due to a backlog. Fresh meat from Ireland requiring checks with nowhere to go and business requiring their goods. And all this has been fed back up t the ministers, and has done since Brexit preparations began 3 years ago
And FYI, if you're wondering why I'm quoting EU legislation it's because we will still be following it with the obvious amendment as per the Withdrawal Bill
So Pete, that's why backlogs will happen. All because of an incompetent government
