The chairman of Marks and Spencer has laid out the reality of post-Brexit trading saying that goods arriving in the Republic of Ireland have to carry 700 pages of documentation which take eight hours to prepare. Archie Norman told BBC 4's Today programme: "At the moment wagons arriving in the Republic of Ireland have to carry 700 pages of documentation. It takes eight hours to prepare the documentation. Some of the descriptors, particularly of animal product, have to be written in Latin and in a certain typeface."
He said for every sandwich, because they contain butter, it has to have an EU vet certificate. They now employ 13 vets to prepare that paperwork. The deliveries take 30% more driver time.
He admitted the retailer was "at the frontline" of the problems. "We had a business in France exporting into France – we've had to close that because of the customs rules. We have a big business in the Republic of Ireland who very much want to continue but it's proving very, very tough to make it work."
