OREANDA-NEWS. The UK announced on September 14 that it would postpone customs checks of goods coming from EU countries for a year due to problems with supply chains.

Full customs declarations and control according to the new schedule are planned to be introduced by January 1, 2022, while declarations on safety and security from suppliers will not be required until July 1, 2022. This kind of new schedule should make it easier for businesses to adapt to new requirements.

This decision was made by the UK Cabinet of Ministers, citing problems with supply chains throughout Europe as a whole, which were caused by coronavirus restrictions. During the pandemic, when the global supply chains of goods were disrupted, there was an acute shortage of goods in the agricultural segment, which led to problems in the agri-food sector as a whole.

"We want businesses to focus on their recovery from the pandemic, and not on new requirements at the borders," said Lord David Frost, a member of the Cabinet.

The UK's exit from the bloc, which ended on January 1, was not without difficulties. Huge queues of trucks carrying food products to the countries were lined up at the borders of Great Britain and France. Long queues had a bad effect on the quality of imported products, which led to a continuing shortage of food in stores. The weakening of customs checks of imported goods should allow solving this problem in the near future.