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Exclusive: Companies are turning to cheap EU labour to fill in Brexit red tape, due to a shortage of workers in the U.K. 1/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-18/brexit-creates-jobs-for-customs-staff-in-eastern-europe-india?sref=yMmXm5Iy
Reminder: hundreds of millions of customs declarations will apply to U.K.-EU trade after Brexit, even if there's an FTA. It's a consequence of leaving the EU's customs union. The docs cost between ~£35-£60 each, with an estimated total annual cost of ~£13 billion 2/
There is a shortage in Britain of trained customs staff to handle the paperwork, and the virus has hampered efforts to recruit more 3/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-04/shortage-of-customs-staff-risks-brexit-shock-trade-deal-or-not?sref=yMmXm5Iy
So what are companies doing? Hiring abroad. Xpediator, a group of freight forwarding firms, is recruiting staff in Romania to handle the paperwork. The labour is cheaper, and Romania has a deep pool of customs expertise having only joined the EU in 2007 4/
Another case, this time further afield. Metro Shipping in Birmingham, which moves goods for FTSE 100 firms, is hiring staff in India to do the work. `There’s nowhere near enough skill-set here to cover it,' said biz dev. director Grant Liddell 5/
The customs agent shortage is one of the main Brexit risks as the end of transition nears. If companies haven't filled in the red tape, there goods will get stopped at the border. That's why there are concerns of 7,000-truck-long queues into Dover 6/ https://twitter.com/Joe_Mayes/status/1308480972531347460
How is the government doing on fixing the problem? They've made £84m available in grants for customs training.. but less than 30% of that has actually been paid out to firms. And Michael Gove repeatedly declines to say how many agents have been trained 7/ https://twitter.com/Joe_Mayes/status/1326828123690774528?s=20
Working in customs is one of the genuine money-making opportunities of Brexit. But even here, the jobs are starting to go to eastern Europeans and non-Brits... ends/ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-11-18/brexit-creates-jobs-for-customs-staff-in-eastern-europe-india?sref=yMmXm5Iy
