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French customs officials are causing lengthy queues at Dover by demanding physical “wet” signatures on paperwork, business chiefs have said.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said demands for ink signatures on documents required for post-Brexit exports of animal and plant products were creating hold ups at the border as most documentation is produced digitally.

Mitterand once decided to protect the French VCR industry by only allowing customs clearance of Japanese VCRs at the port of Poitou. Which is an inland, river, port, without access for big, first, oceangoing boats. So, transhipment. Plus a customs crew of two men et un chien.

Tossers – let the Germans keep ’em next time.

15 thoughts on “Tossers”

  1. Maybe we should insist that all french fishing licence applications are written out longhand, in Cornish. And any spelling mistake gets the application returned.

  2. French demand pointless pettifogging bureaucracy because reasons. #FBPE insist it’s the fault of Brexit and a logical consequence thereof.

  3. Splendid idea BiW. Another possibility is to tow all those channel crossers back to France, and insist that they first prove they have a legal right to enter the UK. If your bureaucrats can’t produce the necessary bullshit——–oops detail the necessary requirements, I’m sure we Aussies could do it for you.

  4. Unless the |ermans are going to invade a nuclear power armed only with wooden brushes and a deep-seated sense of pacifistic guilt I think it’s going to be down to us.

  5. Standard economic theory tells us it’s their loss, they aren’t benefiting from cheap British goods. Try telling that to the exporters though…

  6. This economic sabotage from France was inevitable after Brexit (there was still some when we were in). There’s not much we can do about it directly, other than try and improve non-French connections to the other EU countries. Obviously we should use Brexit to make ourselves more competitive in the rest of the world. Plus engage in some diplomatic fiddling to weaken the EU overall. It’s against our national interest to have a German-French alliance dominating Europe. Wars have been fought over less.

  7. The French only care about EU law when it suits them, though I suppose EU does mean that shipping into Europe via France is only a matter of historical convenience and over time the extra cost of going to other European ports maybe outweighed if the French get too awkward

  8. Most cameras in the world have a 30 minute video limit – to avoid an EU tax

    That tax has gone now. Some camera makers selectively retained the limit to differentiate their products.

  9. It’s amazing how the people complaining about this are completely ignoring the other inlets into the EU summat 2-6 away which are completely uninfested by the French and their wiles….

    Hell.. last weekend the Port of Amsterdam opened up its new lock at IJmuiden that allows ships over *half a kilometer* long to enter our humble dutch harbours if they want to avoid the Rotterdam Traffic Jam.
    Our King even showed up for that one.
    It’s not as if there aren’t other options, especially if you aren’t too fussed about actually delivering in Frogland. If you have to… We Have Roads…

    Maybe the Brits are too stuck on an ages-old rivalry that got irrelevant about the 14th C. ?

  10. yeah… us cloggies noticed… Hence the wars/notwars/alliances over the ages… while Trade (not necessarily “legal”) never ceased…. 😉 )

    The article is pretending Dover-Calais is the only option. Even while it’s never been the *cheapest* by a long shot…

  11. I do recall impeccable French logic deciding to route all their dealing with the hun through a small spa town once.

    Always decisive in protecting their interests. Nothing vichy washy about the goose abusers at all.

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