1. It really is about time that industry and the media stopped whingeing about "paperwork" and "red tape", and started confronting the reality - that UK exports to the EU are now subject to pre-existing third country controls.
. https://www.turbulenttimes.co.uk/news/brexit/brexit-incompetence-all-round/

2. These are not "new" controls. They are part of the EU's Single Market acquis, and the Union Customs Code (UCC), which apply to all third countries and thus are only newly applied to the UK since it acquired third country status.

3. The point is, therefore, that the EU hasn't changed. The UK has - it has purposefully stepped outside the Single Market and thereby willingly and deliberately made its exports to the EU subject to third country controls.

4. These controls mostly apply irrespective of any free trade agreements, and especially the "official controls" which apply to fisheries products, live animals and products of animal origin. There is no excuse whatsoever for not being prepared for their implementation.

5. Nor is it sensible or realistic to ask the EU to be "pragmatic" (i.e, lax) in the implementation of these controls. The EU is obliged under WTO rules to treat all third countries equally, without discrimination. The UK cannot be given a free pass without breaking the rules.

There are no circumstances, therefore, under which the regime will get easier. The only way UK businesses can continue to export is if they take the existing rules seriously as a permanent feature of our trading relationship with the EU, and learn how to comply with them.