Time for a lighter touch:Agreement with the EU is needed to fix the problems facing seafood exporters

摘要

Right in the middle of February, six weeks after the new Brexit rules came into effect, a lorry full of Scottish salmon was stopped at the border control post in the main French fish market of Boulogne-sur-Mer.The customs officials refused to let the lorry travel the short distance to the market where buyers were waiting. Instead, the haulier was delayed for hours and then told he would have to return across the Channel and take the salmon back to where it came from - Shetland.The reason for this standoff was the absence of a single line in ink crossing out one box on one page of the multi-sheet export health certificate.The official signing off the form in Shetland had not crossed out this one box, not because she forgot but because she did not know it had to be crossed out.