Yahoo Finance Britain faces £2bn post-Brexit bill on European food imports
Consumers will be forced to spend an extra £2bn on French cheese, Italian olive oil and other food from the Continent when post-Brexit border checks come into force at the end of this month, according to estimates from Allianz Trade.
The controls will impose costs equivalent to a 10pc tariff on the £21bn-worth of products affected, said the research from Ana Boata, head of economic research at the financial services company.
Goods affected include cereals, meat, dairy products and oils, as well as trees, plants, flowers and bulbs, which amount to around 8pc of all UK imports from the European Union.
Heath certificates were introduced for these products earlier in the year, confirming they are free of disease. However, officials will only start to check this paperwork at the end of the month.
The Allianz report said: “The cost of goods imported from the EU is likely to rise as exporters in the EU will pass on (at least part of) these additional costs to their UK customers.”
However, the suspension of tariffs on a range of other goods from countries with which the UK has no trade deal will ultimately save households even more.
Under a separate measure, introduced today, the tax on imports of products including cars, fuels and precious stones from affected countries will come down, saving consumers an estimated £7bn.
The report said that tariffs on cars - one of the most widely imported products from the EU - will drop from 6.2pc to 0pc, with charges on some processed food products coming down from more than 10pc to 0pc.
It came as the World Trade Organisation predicted a rebound in global trade this year but warned geopolitical tensions and political uncertainty could derail the recovery.
Ralph Ossa, the WTO’s chief economist, said: “We are going to live in a more risky world.
He added that geopolitical tensions between China and the US, the world’s biggest economies, risked “cascading” down into higher prices if tensions escalated.
A government spokesman said: “We do not recognise these figures. These checks will have a minimal impact on food prices and consumers, while saving traders and businesses around £520m each year compared to the model originally proposed.
“Our border checks are fundamental to protecting the UK’s food supply chain, farmers and natural environment against costly diseases reaching our shores.”
