Keir Starmer launches UK-German treaty bid in meeting with Olaf Scholz
https://archive.is/2024.08.28-080243/https://www.ft.com/content/b17f7cfc-f647-4fbb-9ffd-84590b59e1e1
The 22-mile trip for post-Brexit border controls
https://archive.is/968oz >Checks on food arriving at Dover will be carried out on the outskirts of Ashford When checks on food entering the UK from the EU begin on Tuesday, lorries will have to drive 22 miles from Dover to border control posts at Sevington on the outskirts of Ashford. Anyone found to be carrying unsafe or contaminated food could be asked to turn around and drive back again. The government has not explained how lorries will be monitored between the port and its control post, or how it will ensure goods that have been identified as unsafe leave the country.
Reuters interviewed 20 people under the age of 30 to understand their support. The most common reason given for backing the former president was inflation and the perception the economy was not working for them, underscoring how the rise in prices for daily staples is more salient for some than high stock prices and low unemployment during the Biden years. […] At the same time, a majority said they agreed with Trump's reticence about aiding Ukraine in its war with Russia, an isolationist stance at odds with Biden's foreign policy agenda.
UK will not ‘turn on’ post-Brexit checks of EU goods for fear of border delays
Archive link <https://archive.is/xZVYs>
The UK government has told the country’s port authorities that it will not “turn on” critical health and safety checks for EU imports when post-Brexit border controls begin this month because of the risk of “significant disruption”.
In a presentation seen by the Financial Times, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) outlined a plan to avoid queues of lorries at ports, revealing that if the new border measures were implemented as planned big delays could follow.
Since announcing new border controls on plant and food products last year the government has promised it would “phase in” checks, which trade groups have warned will hurt small businesses and drive up the price of food.
However, just over a fortnight before physical inspections are set to begin, the presentation last week made clear that the new border systems will not be fully ready.
In order to get around the problem, the government said it would ensure the rate of checks was initially “set to zero for all commodity groups” — essentially switching off large parts of the risk management system, in what it called a “phased implementation approach”.
Implementation of the new border controls has been postponed five times since 2021, which has left EU exporters of animal and plant products free to send them to the UK without checks.
In its presentation, Defra admitted to port health authorities that “challenges” still remained within its systems for registering imports of food and animal products that could inadvertently trigger unmanageable levels of inspections, overwhelming ports.
“There is a potential for significant disruption on day one if all commodity codes are turned on at once,” it said.
The presentation did not make clear for how long border checks would be suspended but indicated that the systems would be “progressively turned on” for different product groups.
Business organisations have repeatedly called for the introduction of the new border to be delayed until at least October. “Any further confusion and uncertainty around the introduction of new border checks and costs is bad news for business,” said William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.
“Business urgently needs to see crystal clear communication from Defra on its plans, and if any changes are being made then they need to know now.”
Defra made clear that its plan should not be shared with businesses, which will be charged a maximum of £145 “per consignment” for goods coming from the EU from April 30.
A Defra official also cautioned against disclosing it to the media, saying one of its main aims was to avoid negative news stories, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
Defra said the main customs system will continue to run, but only for the highest risk products, such as meat products from certain countries, and depending on how busy the port of entry is.
Bristol, for example, had only 17 risk notifications in a three-week period this year, while Dover had 12,573 over the same timeframe, so the former could have the full customs checks activated, while those in Dover would be “limited” to avoid delays.
“It is beyond frustrating that repeated warnings about the readiness of crucial infrastructure have been ignored and now in less than two weeks businesses will have to try to navigate this clearly broken system,” said Phil Pluck, head of the Cold Chain Federation, a lobby group for the perishable goods trade.
“The government must postpone full implementation until October and start working with the food logistics industry for a system that genuinely works and mitigates even more confusion, disruption, and costs,” he added.
Defra said it was confident it had the capacity to handle expected checks. “As we have always said, the goods posing the highest biosecurity risk are being prioritised as we build up to full check rates and high levels of compliance.”
It added: “Taking a pragmatic approach to introducing our new border checks minimises disruption, protects our biosecurity and benefits everyone — especially traders.”
Archive link https://archive.is/xZVYs
UK trade volumes suffer record five-year decline
Drop in goods imports and exports attributed to Brexit by economists
UK Conservatives battle to retain ‘true blue’ rural heartlands
Local Somerset farmers such as him voted for Brexit in large numbers, hoping for a more even playing field. They feel disappointed.
Tax-free UK shopping can help more than just tourists
> Under the original policy, shoppers from overseas were eligible to claim VAT refunds unless they were EU residents. Post-Brexit, the government judged it would have to be expanded to EU visitors. But tax-free shopping was scrapped in 2020. A Treasury analysis in 2022 suggested that the policy’s reinstatement would cost £2bn in 2025/26. Yet direct costs only tell half the story. Firstly, the average VAT refund would not be the same for EU and non-EU visitors. Global Blue, the Swiss payments company, has previously estimated the average refund for EU visitors in comparable markets can be up to 63 per cent lower. Fresh analysis must also take account of behavioural effects — the extent to which lower trip costs might encourage more visitors and spending. In 2022, the average tourist would have saved 4.2 per cent on their total spending in the UK had the scheme existed, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. It suggests that this could spur a 5.4 per cent increase in overseas tourist numbers. Applied to 2022 numbers, that would mean an additional 1.7mn visitors.
Inequality could cause violence on streets economist warns
No shit sherlock
Inequality could cause violence on streets economist warns
No shit sherlock
Why hasn’t Threads launched in the EU? Earlier this week, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), the chief regulator in the EU which governs Meta, said the company had confirmed that it did not plan to launch its Threads app within the EU this week. A spokesperson for the regulator said that it had been in contact with Meta about the new service and that it would not be rolled out in the EU “at this point”, according to the Irish Independent. Under the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which came into force earlier this year, tech giants are heavily limited on the data they can share between services they own. This has repercussions for Threads, which brings a user’s data over from Instagram to create their profile. The Irish Independent claims that Meta is seeking clarification from the DPC on how these rules will apply to Threads before they proceed with a launch in the EU market. The DPC has previously blocked the launch of other Meta features in the past, including its Facebook Dating service and Messenger Kids app. In May, the regulator fined Meta a record €1.2 billion (£1 billion) after it ruled the company had breached EU regulations by transferring European users’ Facebook data to the US. Meta will be forced to stop transferring Facebook users’ data to America within five months, and has been given six months to remove data from US servers.
How is Meta regulated in the UK? The regulation of Meta and other tech platforms in the UK are overseen by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which confirmed earlier this week that the launch of Threads would go ahead. “We have received confirmation from Meta that Threads will launch in the UK on July 6 and are continuing to engage with the company on its approach to data protection compliance,” a spokesperson for the ICO said. The UK is not subject to the EU’s Digital Markets Act and does not have equivalent provisions on the statute books as the law passed after the UK’s departure from the EU in 2020. New laws on data and privacy are in the works in the UK via the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. The government claims the legislation “sets out the UK’s common-sense led data laws and will give organisations greater flexibility to protect personal data, while maintaining high data protection standards.”
For example, Defra is proposing to overturn the EU-inherited ban on the sale of ‘piquette’ – an alcoholic drink made from grape pomace left behind during the wine-making process. The EU did this to prevent the over-supply of cheap wine: but the much smaller scale of domestic wine production negates the risk of such an inundation of the UK market.
And https://lemmy.world/post/465785 for a full list of android or iOS client