EURIS Statement Border Issues
21 December 2020
Businesses in the EURIS sectors of electrical, mechanical and electronic industries have, along with all manufacturers and traders, suffered repeated unprecedented challenges to the maintenance of their operations and the supply of products to the energy, construction, transport, health, retail, telecommunications, data, automotive, aerospace and many other essential public services. These businesses depend on highly integrated and usually very efficient global supply chains.
These challenges have arisen from COVID-19 shutdowns restricting supply, COVID-19 recoveries causing rocketing demand on materials, Brexit stockpiling, normal end-of-year ramp-ups, container port chaos, short-strait port gridlock now further exacerbated by sudden border closures to freight. And within 10 days these businesses will be required to adjust to entirely new processes for the great majority of their trade, along with the potential for further huge adjustments depending on the terms of the FTA deal they all desperately hope for.
These businesses request that HM Government will:
- Make rapid arrangements to mitigate the current border closures through pragmatic sanitary measures to minimise the risks of infection transmission while allowing continued flow of freight.
- Conclude the FTA deal quickly on terms that will be friendly to business in the UK and the EU, whose interests are closely aligned.
- Allow suitable implementation measures for the FTA, to allow time for its benefits to be understood and put in place.
