Calais boss urges sense
"Any Brexit measures that slow the flow of lorries that we have today ... would have very serious consequences"
The head of the port of Calais has told Connexion he is hopeful that both the EU and Britain will “see sense” and find a way to avoid chaos at the Channel ports after Brexit.
If they do not, there could be giant tailbacks at both Dover and Calais, said Jean-Marc Puissesseau.
He said: “It’s clear any Brexit measures that slow the flow of lorries that we have today – regular and uninterrupted – would have very serious consequences with dozens of kilometres of tailbacks on both sides.”
Mr Puissesseau said if new checks must be done, this should be in France when lorries leave for the UK and vice versa, meaning there are only export and no import checks.
“We can’t have checks on both sides, it would be impossible – in Calais in 2017 we had a million trucks going out and a million coming in. But the transition agreement gives me hope. It shows the discussions are being done in a reasonable way and we should have two years to put in place what is decided on.
“The important thing now is the decisions that are taken must continue to favour the exchanges between the UK and EU; Dover and Calais.
“It’s not in either Britain or Europe’s interest to have a hard Brexit.
“We need to use all possible modern methods for declaring the goods on board the trucks and avoid the need for checks. But I think today the UK and EU are convinced and intelligent solutions can be found.”
Mr Puissesseau said, for example, it is important that the UK and EU retain the same norms as much as possible on rules such as those governing agricultural produce, concerning pests and crop disease.
Failure to find solutions could mean goods arriving late on both sides harming businesses such as car makers or Airbus in the UK. “If it becomes a real obstacle, firms will leave the UK and our local firms that work with the UK would face serious risks of becoming less competitive.”
Mr Puissesseau said he finds it hard to think of the UK as a so-called ‘third-country’, the EU’s expression for countries outside the EU or associated structures.
“Usually when we speak of third countries it’s developing countries, not similar to ours. Great Britain to us is part of the European family; we’re close. There are so many relations between the two countries so we must do everything we can.
“The UK sends 60% of its food exports – whisky and meat and so on – to the EU and I presume it wants to keep doing that. And it imports 70% of its food from the EU.”
Mr Puissesseau said another fear for Calais is that trade between the UK and France may drop if the UK seeks to trade more with non-EU states.
The port has invested in enlargement and modernisation, due to finish in 2021, based on expectations of increased UK trade. It has also been developing new forms of goods transport such as ferroutage – with a new liaison from Perpignan in which lorries are put onto trains.
He said he is not worried there will be significant issues for transport of people – freight is the bigger concern.
