UK to spend over $130 million on ferries to cope with no-deal Brexit

[rooster59]

UK to spend over $130 million on ferries to cope with no-deal Brexit

By Andrew MacAskill

 

A cross channel ferry is seen sailing towards France from the Port of Dover in south east Britain, December 7, 2018. REUTERS/Toby Melville

 

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government will spend more than 100 million pounds ($130 million) chartering extra sea ferries to ease cross-Channel congestion if the United Kingdom fails to secure a trade deal before leaving the European Union next year.

 

Just three months before the United Kingdom is due to leave the world's largest bloc, the risk of a no-deal Brexit is rising -- the nightmare scenario for many businesses, which are now planning for an economic shock.

 

Extra ships will be needed to work new routes across the Channel in the event that the main French terminal of Calais and Britain’s Dover and Folkestone are clogged up by customs checks.

 

Currently, Britain's membership of the EU means that trucks drive smoothly through border checks within the bloc. But in a no-deal Brexit, even a few minutes' delay at customs for each truck would be likely to mean vehicles backing up at ports and queuing on feeder roads on both sides of the Channel.

 

To ease a potential backlog, the government has awarded three contracts to provide additional freight capacity on routes from English south-coast ports including Poole, Portsmouth and Plymouth.

 

They comprise one worth 47 million pounds with the French firm Brittany Ferries, a 47 million pound deal with the Danish shipping company DFDS and a 14 million pound contract with Seaborne Freight.

 

The leader of the opposition Liberal Democrat party, Vince Cable, called the move "complete madness" and said public money was being spent recklessly in a last-minute bid to prepare for a no-deal outcome.

 

The contracts were not put out to tender. The Department for Transport said it was responding to a "situation of extreme urgency" brought about by "unforeseeable events".

 

About 16,000 trucks pass between Dover and Calais every day, transporting everything from perishable food to medicines and the industrial goods needed to keep factories running.

 

"This extra capacity is a small but important element of the DfT's no-deal planning," the Department for Transport said in a statement. "While remaining committed to working to ensure a deal is reached, the department is helping ensure the rest of government are fully prepared for a range of scenarios."

 

Earlier this month, the government announced that all government departments must step up planning for a no-deal Brexit, including putting 3,500 armed forces personnel on standby to deal with any disruption.

($1 = 0.7871 pounds)

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-29

 

[Walter Travolta]

Wow a £130m??
The cost of a top flight footballer? Hardly gonna break the bank is it?
And when you compare it to the £40bn the EU want hahahaha - no contest. Goodbye E-Users, your gravy train from the UK is coming to an end
 

[evadgib]

With the number of boats being abandoned along the south coast we should have more than enough already ????

[evadgib]

(E)U turn..?

 

[impulse]

3 hours ago, Walter Travolta said:

Wow a £130m??
The cost of a top flight footballer? Hardly gonna break the bank is it?
And when you compare it to the £40bn the EU want hahahaha - no contest. Goodbye E-Users, your gravy train from the UK is coming to an end

 

If your underage daughter asked you for 130 baht to buy a pregnancy test kit, would you worry about the money?

 

That 130 baht would pale in comparison to what it really means.

 

[Chomper Higgot]

It seems they Ferries are a ‘Plan B’ just in case  this fails:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/29/cross-party-stop-the-clock-hard-brexit-no-deal-29-march

 

(Sound of can bouncing on cobblestones).

[Guest]

7 hours ago, impulse said:

 

If your underage daughter asked you for 130 baht to buy a pregnancy test kit, would you worry about the money?

 

That 130 baht would pale in comparison to what it really means.

What an brilliant comparison! I'll steal it from you and use it as my own when trying to explain magnitudes. ????

[cornishcarlos]

Propaganda machine in full swing..

Couple days ago was the story about immigrants crossing the channel in boats..

Scaremongering tactics ????

[lannarebirth]

2 hours ago, oilinki said:

What an brilliant comparison! I'll steal it from you and use it as my own when trying to explain magnitudes. ????

Yeah, that's why I nominated him for POTY. Instead, we've got the best of the "Farang Pub".

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

It seems they Ferries are a ‘Plan B’ just in case  this fails:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/29/cross-party-stop-the-clock-hard-brexit-no-deal-29-march

 

(Sound of can bouncing on cobblestones).

 

Thanks for posting this link. Very interesting.

 

4m spent on consultants like the BCG! I was in organizations that used them and other 'blue chip" consultancies. Expensive, and tell you what you already know: that you've got problems and need to think of about them - 555! Waste of tax payers' money, again.

 

I hope the EU insist that any extension granted to Art 50 must be tied to a new people's vote. I'd prefer to see Article 50 withdrawn. followed by a new referendum, followed by a GE. But that would scare the politicians who want a way forward that safeguards their position and career.

[geriatrickid]

I'm convinced that  there is a grab bag of groups seeking to  sabotage a peaceful and organized resolution to this  matter. Russia, speculators and even the Chinese all have a vested interest in seeing the UK weakened and the EU disrupted.

[Srikcir]

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Extra ships will be needed to work new routes across the Channel in the event that the main French terminal of Calais and Britain’s Dover and Folkestone are clogged up by customs checks.

If those "new routes" cannot be supported by alternate EU ports of entry or require new EU ports of entry, how does adding more ships solve the export custom problems to expedite UK shipping exports to the EU?

[puipuitom]

18 hours ago, Walter Travolta said:

Wow a £130m??
The cost of a top flight footballer? Hardly gonna break the bank is it?
And when you compare it to the £40bn the EU want hahahaha - no contest. Goodbye E-Users, your gravy train from the UK is coming to an end
 

 

Agreed. And stop per 29 March 2019 also all payments out of where this U.K. contribution was meant for; starting with no salary, unemployment paymenst and pensions to all British, who ever was an EU employee. 

[puipuitom]

7 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

It seems they Ferries are a ‘Plan B’ just in case  this fails:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/dec/29/cross-party-stop-the-clock-hard-brexit-no-deal-29-march

 

(Sound of can bouncing on cobblestones).

Why we, EU citizens, have nothing to say if we really wants the British back in our Union ? Always fuzz with them.

[elliss]

  More  ferries  ,  to house the immigrants seeking  to live in the UK. 

      Problem solved .

[dunroaming]

Not sure I understand the logic behind this.  The problem is going to be the paperwork and customs checks at the ports.  This what is going to cause the backlogs. To increase the traffic flow is to increase the problem.  Spend the money on bringing in more customs officers and bigger clearing areas.  That is where the problems arise.

 

Or spend the money on tackling the illegal immigrants who are endangering their lives crossing the channel.  And for those naïve enough to think that leaving the EU will address that problem, think again.  If anything the amount of illegal immigrants trying to get to the UK will increase because the European side will have no incentive to stop them.

[Ulic]

The EU turning the screws and they will do everything possible to make things difficult and miserable for the UK. They don't want anyone else threatening to leave. Make an example of the UK and everyone will fall into line. 

[Guest]

12 minutes ago, Ulic said:

The EU turning the screws and they will do everything possible to make things difficult and miserable for the UK. They don't want anyone else threatening to leave. Make an example of the UK and everyone will fall into line. 

Not really. The last I heard EU was offering quite an extensive relief package for UK when the no-deal Brexit happens. Nobody in EU wants UK to default it's economy.

 

This includes all kind of temporary rights for the UK. 

 

 

 

[dunroaming]

22 minutes ago, Ulic said:

The EU turning the screws and they will do everything possible to make things difficult and miserable for the UK. They don't want anyone else threatening to leave. Make an example of the UK and everyone will fall into line. 

A no deal Brexit will cause as many border customs problems on the EU side as the UK side.  So I am afraid your argument falls at the first fence.

[sirineou]

8 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

A no deal Brexit will cause as many border customs problems on the EU side as the UK side.  So I am afraid your argument falls at the first fence.

The UK had an overall trade deficit of -£67 billion with the EU in 2017 so it stand to reason that more goods travel to the UK  than from  EU through the border crossing than the other way around, thus causing more problems for the UK 

 Furthermore expect prices to rise in the UK to compensate for the additional cost . 

[Guest]

9 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

A no deal Brexit will cause as many border customs problems on the EU side as the UK side.  So I am afraid your argument falls at the first fence.

When the customs regulations are going cause a lot of delays, it will start the 2nd wave of problems delivering stuff between EU and UK.

 

UK truckers have no choice but do the trip, no matter how long it takes. EU truckers can turn to other, inside EU markets, as why they would do a single trip to UK, when they could do 3-5 trips to EU at the same time. 

 

I suppose trucks are like airplanes; they make money when they are moving / flying. 

 

This will eventually lead to price hike of trucking costs from EU to UK and the other way around. These cost hikes are then added to the goods prices, on top of the tariffs and paperwork costs for the goods which travel between EU and UK. 

 

This naturally will result of decrease of trade between EU and UK.

 

Now, how about those car manufacturers from Japan and elsewhere in the UK, how about Airbus wing factories in the UK? How about all the other Asian and American businesses, which setup UK as their base with access to EU markets??

 

This should probably be the official Brexit song for the businesses in UK.

 

The Clash - Should I Stay or Should I Go (Audio)

 

[Guest]

Provided that EU gives a 9 month to 1 year relief of UK truckers to have a freedom to enter EU, after that the amount of UK trucks, which are allowed to enter EU, is reduced to 3000, if I recall correctly.

 

.. Oh, I was wrong. The number of permits by the international standards is way lower. Only 103 permits.

 

Quote

James Hookham, deputy chief executive of the Freight Transport Association (FTA), told Business Insider that a no-deal Brexit would see Britain revert to an old set of international arrangements which handed Britain just 103 permits to cover the 300,000 journeys made by British trucks make to Europe every year.

 

https://www.businessinsider.sg/british-trucks-barred-from-europe-under-no-deal-brexit-industry-leader-warns-2018-6/?r=UK&IR=T

 

If there is no further deal, that means that the traffic between UK and EU comes to almost halt. Go no-deal brexit I suppose?

 

Ireland needs to solve how it will bring it's products to the rest of the EU. If the time delay going through UK is greater than the delay taking a ferry directly from Ireland to France, then I suppose there will be a huge increase of ferry traffic between Ireland and France. Anyway there should be quite a few, 'for sale' ferries, which used to shuttle between UK and EU.

 

Perhaps there are also other, as some call 'technological solutions', like using cargo boats to do this trip?

 

What else? Well, UK's ability to sell and export it's products to the EU countries due tariffs and customs hassle will reduce the amount of traffic anyway. That's a good thing.

 

Even if UK would put 0-tariffs on IMPORTS on WTO rules, which would make UK an very interesting country to export food and other goods to, other countries naturally will not do the same. It would be insane thing to do as it kills local farming and food manufacturing.

 

In practise this means that the boats around the world are sending ships full of goods to UK, but returning empty handed back home as UK food and good prices are so expensive, due their countries WTO rules import tariffs. Therefore double the traveling costs for shipping things to UK.

 

Perhaps EU can help in this matter and the ships, after dumping their goods to UK, can visit EU harbours to fill the ships with EU goods to get back to their home countries... this works because EU already has free trade agreements with so many countries around the world.

 

Thanks UK for halving the bill of shipping costs for us!

 

But I suppose the Brexitters already knew everything about these things. I can only assume that Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and other frontline Brexitteers and "Let's go to WTO-rules" supporters have explained these rather logical next few steps to you already a long time ago. Have they?

 

[Basil B]

They did not see that written on the Bus. 

[Basil B]

On 12/29/2018 at 1:52 PM, Walter Travolta said:

Wow a £130m??
The cost of a top flight footballer? Hardly gonna break the bank is it?
And when you compare it to the £40bn the EU want hahahaha - no contest. Goodbye E-Users, your gravy train from the UK is coming to an end
 

Without a deal or remain this mess is going to cost us more than £40Bn...

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Without a deal or remain this mess is going to cost us more than £40Bn...

Far more than that famous £39 billion, which was already agreed and which EU is going to sue UK in the international court if UK suddenly decides not to pay the fees of already agreed projects and pension plans for the UK citizens who worked for EU.

 

UK Erasmus students will be pretty pissed and vocal when they learn that their future plans are cancelled, because of brexit. Good luck for elderly brexitteers to get them to respect the elderly, after the elderly people denied their international future. Good luck with that, old brexit geezers. 

 

On top of that, international businesses will sue UK for breaking agreements of providing access to EU markets for them. This is to help these companies to pay the relocation costs to continental Europe. 

 

Who in their right mind would trust UK after it has denied it's responsibilities and have gone all Trump? It might be a bit more difficult to do free trade deals, when country's old credibility is destroyed. UK didn't used to be like this. 

 

On top of that all the lost businesses, current and future. UK's lost access to EU's banking systems. Lost access to.. so very many things. 

 

This no-deal Brexit is going to be such a huge mess. I can hardly wait to see to see what it really means in practise. 

[nauseus]

10 hours ago, Baerboxer said:

 

Thanks for posting this link. Very interesting.

 

4m spent on consultants like the BCG! I was in organizations that used them and other 'blue chip" consultancies. Expensive, and tell you what you already know: that you've got problems and need to think of about them - 555! Waste of tax payers' money, again.

 

I hope the EU insist that any extension granted to Art 50 must be tied to a new people's vote. I'd prefer to see Article 50 withdrawn. followed by a new referendum, followed by a GE. But that would scare the politicians who want a way forward that safeguards their position and career.

BOO

[evadgib]

 

[Scott]

Off-topic posts and replies removed.

[bartender100]

I love this and Drunkers face as he is listening, well worth a quick watch, UK is not the only one in the EU unhappy

 

 

[vinny41]

Our analysis shows that if the UK leaves the EU without a trade deal UK exporters could
face the potential impact of £5.2 billion in tariffs on goods being sold to the EU. However,
EU exporters will also face £12.9 billion in tariffs on goods coming to the UK.
 Exporters to the UK in 22 of the 27 remaining EU member states face higher tariffs costs
when selling their goods than UK exporters face when selling goods to those countries.
 German exporters would have to deal with the impact of £3.4 billion of tariffs on goods
they export to the UK. UK exporters in return would face £0.9 billion of tariffs on goods
going to Germany.
 French exporters could face £1.4 billion in tariffs on their products compared to UK
exporters facing £0.7 billion. A similar pattern exists for all the UK’s major EU trading
partners.
 The biggest impact will be on exports of goods relating to vehicles, with tariffs in the
region of £1.3 billion being applied to UK car-related exports going to the EU. This
compares to £3.9 billion for the EU, including £1.8 billion in tariffs being applied to
German car-related exports.

https://www.civitas.org.uk/content/f...reuuktrade.pdf

 tarrifs are collected  by the UK Goverment and the EU
so when the UK sells to the EU £5.2 billion in tariffs on goods is collected by the EU
When the EU sells to the UK EU exporters will also face £12.9 billion in tariffs on goods coming to the UK

so £12.9 billion paid to the UK Goverment by the EU allows the Goverment to pay the UK exporters Tarrif bill of £5.2 billion and still leaves an extra £7.7 billion net to the Uk Goverment