BIRMINGHAM: June 21, 2019. Logistics companies are reluctant to spend money on preparing for a no-deal Brexit if the UK government doesn’t tell them what to prepare for, according to panelists speaking at the Multimodal 2019 expo this week.

Head of Global and European policy for Britain’s Freight Transport Association (FTA) Pauline Bastidon said many companies are reluctant to invest heavily without certainty the investments will be required. “This is probably the biggest challenge we have faced in a generation and the implications for logistics are huge.”

“FTA is urging the government to extend the easements granted pre-29th March; provide clear, end-to-end guidance to industry setting out the process and requirements on both sides of the borders; and to work with the industry to increase the attractiveness of transit and Customs facilitations,” explained Bastidon.

Tim Reardon, head of EU Exit for the Port of Dover added: “The technology is there as a tool but this is a cart and horse situation. Until we have defined what the process is that the technology needs to deliver, there isn’t much point in developing it.”

Eurotunnel’s Public Affairs director John Keefe noted that with so many players involved in the supply chain, there was an urgent need for the Tory government to “refocus” and give a clear and stable definition of what the Customs process would be. “All the energy is going into managing the negative consequences of ‘day one no deal’, very little energy is being put into avoiding those negative consequences,” he declared.

Speaking on the BBC today, Bank of England governor Marc Carney said only 40 percent of British exporters were prepared for a no-deal Brexit and as many as 150,000 UK companies did not have the paperwork in place to export to the EU.

Carney also dismissed a claim by Boris ‘Mr Blobby’ Johnson that tariffs would not have to be paid if the UK left the EU without a deal, because Britain could rely on Article 24 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

“Gatt 24 applies if you have an agreement, not if you’ve decided not to have an agreement or have been unable to come to an agreement,” Carney explained.

“Not having an agreement with the EU means that there are tariffs automatically because the Europeans have to apply the same rules to us as they apply to everyone else,” he told the BBC.

Mr Blobby is bidding to be Britain’s next unelected prime minister and leader of the current no-deal Brexit Conservative Party.

Pictured from left to right: Peter Ward, CEO of the UK Warehousing Association (moderator); Pauline Bastidon, head of Global and European policy, Freight Transport Association (FTA); Peter MacSwiney, chairman, ASM; Shahar Ayash, managing director UK and Europe, Tigers;Tim Reardon, head of EU Exit, The Port of Dover; John Keefe, Public Affairs director Eurotunnel; Luis Gabiola, director Commercial Operations and Logistics, Port of Bilbao Authority.