Ashford Borough Council has welcomed a Government announcement confirming that checks will still be required on EU goods and that the facility at the Sevington Inland Border Facility is likely to be the sole new Border Control Post located in Kent.
The regime for checking goods imported from the EU at Sevington was delayed in 2022 as the Government decided to overhaul the entire imports landscape to take in rest of the world controlled
goods and not just those originating from the EU.
The exercise was intended to both reduce the amount of checks needed at the border and also to simplify the regime in general.
The review looked at how data from multiple sources could be combined to ease the number of IT systems needing to be used to import goods.
This will now be delivered through a single trade window (STW).
The STW covers both Port Health and Customs Controls.
In order to move the work forwards, a new Target Operating Model (TOM) was produced building on previous work contained in a document called the Border Operating Model that was more focused on the EU trade.
Ashford Borough Council Chief Executive Tracey Kerly said: “The publication of the TOM is excellent news for the council as it has confirmed that checks will still be required on EU goods and that the facility at Sevington is likely to be the sole new Border Control Post located in Kent.
“Our Port Health Team, under the direction of Anthony Baldock, Director of Health and Wellbeing, is currently working in various roles within DEFRA and APHA dealing with the bird flu epidemic and on trials related to the schemes proposed in the new TOM.
“Our team will be fully returning to the council from the early summer as at present their time is shared so that the work we are already engaged in, such as Illegal Unregulated Fishing controls,can be maintained.”
The TOM takes a staged approach to the introduction of the controls being introduced. Goods that are subject to so-called sanitary or phytosanitary controls (SPS) undergo documentary checks. Identity checks and physical checks are based on risk.
The TOM sets out that documentary checks will be introduced for high and medium risk products of animal origin from October 2023 for EU goods and will be rolled out in national centres including Sevington which will be included in that phase of the work.
The full checking regime, including identity checks and physical inspections, will begin in January 2024.
For details visit www.ashfordporthealth.gov.uk