The post you are reporting:
Courtesy of the Times, looks like we have been caught out.
The European Commission has hit Britain with a £2.4 billion fine, accusing the government of turning a blind eye to widespread customs fraud at ports. In a provocative move, ahead of the start of trade negotiations, Brussels has written to the government demanding payment after an investigation by the EU’s anti-fraud unit, Olaf. It accuses the UK of allowing Chinese criminal gangs to systematically undervalue goods imported into the EU through Dover and Felixstowe, avoiding billions of pounds in customs duty and VAT that should have been paid to Brussels.
The EU claims that Britain was made aware of the fraud more than ten years ago but failed to act, costing Brussels €2.6 billion in lost revenue. British authorities say they do not recognise the commission’s findings or the estimate of what it owed and will dispute the fine. Normally the issue would be adjudicated by the European Court of Justice but Britain will almost certainly have left before the case can be heard. As a result, the fine is likely to become an issue in the divorce bill negotiations. It also has the potential to be used by the commission as evidence that the UK cannot be trusted to effectively enforce any “soft” customs border after Brexit.
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, accused Brussels of using “the language of a gang” with calls for the UK to be “punished” for Brexit. In a speech to the British Chambers of Commerce in London, Dr Fox called on the EU to take a pragmatic approach to the negotiations. “The idea of punishing Britain to me is not the language of a club, it is the language a gang,” he said. Official figures obtained by The Times last year revealed that crime gangs, based in Britain but operating internationally, had doubled the volume of fraudulent freight they shipped into Europe through British ports over a three-year period. Suspicious shipments of clothing and shoes imported through Britain from China rose from 192 million kg in 2013 to more than 407 million kg in 2016. Investigators said the gangs chose Britain because they were allowed to declare imported goods at impossibly low values. The EU’s anti-fraud office claimed that the average value declared at the UK border for women’s cotton trousers was €0.91 per kg, compared with an EU average of €26.09. Customs duty is charged at 12 per cent of the declared value so the fraudsters could make huge savings by declaring in Britain.