The UK's Labour government has postponed the implementation of a program to create a "seamless trade border" after Brexit (leaving the EU), after spending 110 million pounds (approximately $ 150 million) on contracts with partners Deloitte and IBM. This was reported by the Financial Times (FT).
The "Single Trade Window" (STW) project, according to the newspaper, envisages the creation of a universal digital platform for traders, which, among other things, would simplify the submission and processing of import and export documents. However, STW was halted after a series of delays and IT infrastructure failures, hampering the implementation of the border measures, which the UK National Audit Office estimated would cost £4.7 billion ($6.4 billion).
According to British authorities, although the “implementation aspect” of STW has been closed, Whitehall is still involved in the “political development” of the programme.
Experts say that implementing the project would save British businesses at least a quarter of a billion dollars. Without this programme, they believe that the UK would need a truly major reset in its relations with the EU to eliminate bureaucratic red tape.
The Brexit referendum was held on June 23, 2016. 51.9% of Britons voted to leave the EU, while 48.1% voted against. After several years of negotiations, the UK left the EU on the night of 1 February 2020.
The post-Brexit transition period, during which all European rules applied to the UK, ended on 1 January 2021. In December 2020, the parties reached an agreement on post-Brexit relations, which includes a quota-free and tariff-free free trade area for goods and services.