LONDON – The UK has been preparing for potential food shortages and halting production on Monday if France continued to ban freight, as well as for people traveling from the UK, in an effort to stop the spread of a new strain of coronavirus.
The move to the UK bar entrance, announced by Paris late Sunday, disrupts Britain’s main freight link to Europe, closing trade between ports such as Dover and Calais, which handles up to 10,000 trucks a day.
The travel ban, originally set for 48 hours, came as a number of nations, including Germany, Canada and Denmark, banned UK passengers after British officials said a new, more transmissible strain of coronavirus was responsible for an increase in cases in London and the south-east of England. .
To combat the spread, UK officials have imposed new restrictions on the most affected areas over the weekend, while reducing plans to relax Christmas measures nationwide.
Already, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium have confirmed a small number of cases of a new coronavirus strain, called N501Y, which scientists believe could be up to 70% more transmissible than established strains.
Officials from European countries met on Monday to discuss how to respond, while the British government was to hold an emergency meeting amid concerns about the lack in some shops resulting from the border disruption.
Concerns about the impact of the new coronavirus strain, as well as uncertainty over whether the UK and the European Union would agree on a post-Brexit trade deal, weighed on the British pound on Monday. The pound fell 1.8% against the dollar and 1.1% against the euro, after falling by up to 2.2% against the green dollar, one of the biggest declines in the market in March.
While various countries during the pandemic put certain restrictions on travel in the UK and elsewhere – such as mandatory quarantines – the transport of goods was always allowed to move freely in and out of the UK until Sunday evening.
Travel suspensions have “the potential to cause serious disruptions to the supply of fresh Christmas food in the UK,” said Ian Wright, executive director of the British Food & Drink Federation. “Continental truckers will not want to travel here if they have a real fear of being let down.”
France, Israel and Canada are some of the countries that have banned travel from the UK in an effort to preserve a new highly infectious strain of coronavirus that is spreading rapidly in England. Photo: Getty Images
J Sainsbury PLC, the second largest food chain in the UK, said there could be shortages of lettuce, some vegetables and citrus in the coming days if a solution cannot be reached.
Following the relocation of France on Sunday, the Port of Dover urged cargo and passenger customers not to travel to its terminals, one of Britain’s busiest. Dover is responsible for 20% of all goods moving between the UK and mainland Europe.
The British government warned of significant disruptions, while the British media showed long-tailed images going to ports in the south of England.
Eurotunnel,
which operates the railway tunnel linking the UK to France, has also shut down all freight and passenger services.
In a statement, the French embassy in London said on Monday that European leaders would establish health protocols that would ensure the resumption of the movement in Britain.
“Our priority: to protect our citizens and fellow citizens,” he said.
However, some companies – especially in the food and beverage industry – said they had already felt the impact of the French movement, given that their goods were perishable.
“This is a disaster … trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of pounds [of shellfish] heading to Dover right now, ”Loch Fyne Seafarms Ltd., a Scottish seafood company, wrote on Twitter following a transport ban.
Delays at ports could also have major consequences beyond food chains and food supplies. While many manufacturers have stocks of components that can sink for short downtime, some companies are working on so-called just-in-time supply chains, where the arrival of parts is closely coordinated with assembly.
This includes manufacturers of bulky vehicles on both sides of the canal.
Toyota engine Body
The statement, for example, used to take only four hours of parts at its plant in the UK and was based on 50 trucks entering the UK every day to build their cars. A three-week strike by French ferry employees in 2015 cut off Toyota’s supply for two months, the company had previously said.
Jack Semple, secretary of the UK trade group, Engineering and Machinery Alliance, said many manufacturers have stocks, but supply chains are so integrated with the rest of Europe that the current outage is a major concern.
“This concern will grow rapidly if people believe this will continue for more than 48 hours,” he said.
Monday’s interruption comes at an already difficult time for British ports, which were under pressure amid pre-Christmas storage and the UK’s pending exit from the European Union’s customs union on 1 January, as well as the disruption caused by the pandemic.
A survey of British carriers launched on Monday by the Haulage Exchange, which matches cargo and drivers, found that 96% of those surveyed said they were not ready for the transition and needed additional clarity on border legislation. The UK and the EU are currently negotiating a potential trade agreement, but the outcome is uncertain.
Write to Alistair MacDonald at [email protected]
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