Small imports of products such as fish, salami, sausage, cheese and yoghurt will be subject to fees of up to £145 from 30 April, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
He added that the government had “announced the charges at the last minute, leaving affected businesses little time to revise their commercial arrangements”.
The fee has been introduced to pay for border inspections and fund new facilities in Kent to protect biosecurity - preventing the import of plant and animal disease.
Labour said British shoppers and businesses were “rightly worried about prices being driven up again” and that it had warned about the “potential for chaos” from new border checks.
A spokesperson said: "The charges follow extensive consultation with industry and a cap has been set specifically to help smaller businesses.
We are committed to supporting businesses of all sizes and across all sectors as they adapt to new border checks and maintaining the smooth flow of imported goods."
The original article contains 631 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Small imports of products such as fish, salami, sausage, cheese and yoghurt will be subject to fees of up to £145 from 30 April, according to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
He added that the government had “announced the charges at the last minute, leaving affected businesses little time to revise their commercial arrangements”.
The fee has been introduced to pay for border inspections and fund new facilities in Kent to protect biosecurity - preventing the import of plant and animal disease.
Labour said British shoppers and businesses were “rightly worried about prices being driven up again” and that it had warned about the “potential for chaos” from new border checks.
A spokesperson said: "The charges follow extensive consultation with industry and a cap has been set specifically to help smaller businesses.
We are committed to supporting businesses of all sizes and across all sectors as they adapt to new border checks and maintaining the smooth flow of imported goods."
The original article contains 631 words, the summary contains 164 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!