By AFP 05 April 2023 | 1:42 pm Britain unveiled plans Wednesday to streamline post-Brexit customs checks and slash red tape on goods coming into or leaving the European Union. Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak gives an interview to broadcast tv media, following a meeting with local community and police leaders, after the announcement of a new police task force to help officers tackle grooming gangs, in Rochdale, northern England on April 3, 2023. (Photo by PHIL NOBLE / POOL / AFP) Britain unveiled plans Wednesday to streamline post-Brexit customs checks and slash red tape on goods coming into or leaving the European Union. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government has published a draft of its Border Target Operating Model, which will implement checks required under the terms of a Brexit trade agreement with the EU. The UK has delayed implementing the checks several times since it left the bloc at the start of 2021, after a knife-edge referendum in favour of Brexit in 2016. “Our approach has been to minimise trader burdens and maintain border security while remaining aligned with international standards,” the government said in the draft document. There will now be a consultation period that will run for six weeks until May 19. The administration of prominent Brexiteer Sunak aims to roll out its new plan via phases in the year to October 31, 2024. The overhaul will be backed by an investment totalling more than £1 billion ($1.2 billion). It will seek to utilise technology “to reduce the reams of paperwork firms are currently forced to complete when they do business”. The new plan “will eradicate the cumbersome and frustrating approach currently taken to carrying out checks, replacing it with a more targeted, risk-based system that is underpinned by evidence and data”, the document added. Wednesday’s announcement comes just days after massive border delays and weekend travel chaos at the port of Dover. However, UK interior minister Suella Braverman rejected claims that the Easter getaway delays were an adverse effect of Brexit, which also ended free movement from Britain to European Union member states. Latest 54 mins ago Italian ex-prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, a dominant player in his nation’s politics for decades, was in intensive care on Wednesday for heart problems. 1 hour ago The Federal High Court in Abuja has issued an order restraining the Labour Party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure, the party’s Secretary, Farouk Ibrahim, and two others from acting as the party’s national officials. Other party officials affected by the order include the National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu, and the Treasurer, Oluchi Opara. The restraining order… 1 hour ago Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, said the comments of Labour Party vice-presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed towards the judiciary were unacceptable. Baba-Ahmed during an interview in May said the country has no president-elect despite the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announcing Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.… 1 hour ago The Federal Government has declared Friday and Monday as holidays for Easter celebrations. The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, disclosed this in a statement signed by the Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Shuaib Begore, on Wednesday. Aregbesola called on Christians to emulate the virtues of sacrifice, togetherness, forgiveness, kindness, love, peace, and patience that were attributes and… 1 hour ago Raven Bank “The People’s Bank of Africa” has emerged as Africa’s Most Valuable Fintech Brand of the Year 2023 at Africa’s 100 Most Valuable Brands 2023 awards.
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