France to run month-long customs rehearsal for no-deal Brexit

France will test run for a month measures it has prepared for Britain's exit from the European Union so that companies are fully prepared ahead of the current Brexit deadline at the end of October, including if there is no withdrawal deal, a government minister said on Friday.

Gerald Darmanin, who is in charge of customs, met Michael Gove, the British minister in charge of co-ordinating no-deal Brexit planning, in Calais on Friday to show how France is preparing for the British departure.

For one month the French authorities will act as if Brexit has occurred to make sure they are ready by the end of October, Mr Darmanin said.

“We are getting ready for the worst,” he said. “We are preparing for a no-deal Brexit, which is the likeliest hypothesis as of today,” he said. He did not give a specific date for the start of the test run.

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British prime minister Boris Johnson has promised to take the country out of the bloc on October 31st regardless of whether a divorce deal has been agreed.

Businesses have been warning of long tailbacks for lorries transporting goods between mainland Europe and Britain. The British government has said most goods from the EU will be allowed into Britain without full customs checks for at least three months if there is a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Darmanin said some 700 extra customs officers have been drafted in and authorities will also introduce online border declarations forcing companies to announce their goods prior to arriving at the border.

"You are in Grenoble [eastern France], you are a small or medium-sized company, you export to Britain and so you now declare everything online," he said.

When all the paperwork is done ahead of time online, trucks will be able to move fast through the border, he said.

He said his services are ready to deal with the new paperwork, the new taxes and the additional controls that will be set up.

“We want to make things as painless as possible,” he said. The automation and digitalisation of the processes will make traffic fluid near the country’s ports and there will not be massive traffic jams in Calais, he said.

French authorities spent €6 million on new buildings and car parks in the town, and set up new infrastructure in other ports including Le Havre and La Rochelle.

France is the EU’s biggest agricultural producer and exports large amounts of wine, spirits and dairy products to Britain, while relying on its neighbour’s waters to sustain its fishing industry. – Reuters