Post-Brexit checks on some EU goods coming into Great Britain have been delayed by six months in order to give businesses more time to prepare.
The government said the new timetable would help firms recovering in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It means physical checks on products such as meat and milk due from July will now begin in January 2022.
The requirement for health certificates on such products has been pushed back from April to October.
It is the second time that the timetable for the checks, originally due after the post-Brexit transition ended in January 2021, has been put back.
Commenting on this announcement of the postponement, Adam Marshall, Director General of the BCC, said:
“This is a positive step as it recognises what everyone in business has known for weeks now: UK-EU trade has faced, and continues to face, significant disruption and difficulty.
“Ministers are right to delay the implementation of import checks that would slow trade even further – but this can only be a temporary solution.
“What businesses want to see is an end to the damaging political rhetoric from both sides, and a focus on improving border flow for the long term. The UK and the EU must get back around the table and thrash out the remaining structural problems in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement.
“For some UK firms, the continued problems with EU trade are threatening their very existence. It should not be the case that companies simply have to give up on importing from, or exporting to, the market next door.”
