Ateia-Oltra Association of freight forwarders of the Bay of Algeciras has denounced an "absolute chaos" in the transportation of goods across the border since the elimination of the Barrier and the provisional entry into force of the Treaty between the United Kingdom and the European Union. The organization claims that several trucks with perishable products remain immobilized since last week awaiting the completion of the corresponding customs procedures.
In statements to Radio Algeciras of the Cadena Ser, the president of Ateia-Oltra, Manuel Cózar, has linked the accumulation of vehicles and delays in operations to problems with the functioning of the new IT applications implemented for managing administrative procedures. "Processes cannot be carried out because we are completely blocked; the system does not work," summarized the representative of the collective, who directly attributes the inability to complete the necessary procedures to authorise the movement of cargo to these failures.
Cozar maintains that the problem has deep roots and was foreseen. "We have been warning from our association and from the National Federation for a long time before the agreement was signed," he stated. According to his explanation, the experience accumulated by the sector shows that the implementation of new IT systems "brings many problems, especially in the application of the software," which, in his opinion, made a prior testing phase essential that was ultimately not established before the start of the new framework.
The association recalls that at the time it proposed establishing an adaptation period to check the real functioning of the systems and to train the professionals in charge of using them. This piloting margin, insists the collective, would have reduced a good part of the incidents that today affect the passage of goods through the border of the Rock.
The delays have generated concern among Gibraltar businesses, particularly regarding their possible effects on the supply of essential products and the transportation of goods with limited shelf life. Industry professionals warn that if customs procedures do not soon return to normal, there could be supply problems for medications and fresh food in the coming days.
In light of this situation, the Government of Gibraltar has held the first meeting of the Advisory Group for Business Transition since the provisional entry into force of the Treaty. The meeting was attended by officials from the Customs Service of the Rock and representatives from various business sectors, with the aim of reporting firsthand the incidents registered at the border crossing during the first days of application of the new framework.
The meeting allowed for an analysis of the functioning of the new border and customs controls during this startup. Business representatives have reported the incidents detected in the movement of goods and have conveyed the operational difficulties affecting importers, transporters, freight forwarders, and logistics operators. The issues range from prolonged vehicle hold-ups to problems in completing customs procedures required by the new regime on time.
The Gibraltar Executive has committed to maintaining coordination with the Customs Service to address technical and operational problems that may continue to arise during the transition period. It has also communicated that it will conduct ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the Treaty and its impact on commercial and logistical activities in the area, with special attention to the bottlenecks identified in the passage of goods.
The Advisory Group will meet again in the coming weeks to review the evolution of controls, evaluate the measures adopted, and gather new contributions from the affected businesses. The agenda for these meetings will likely include both the pending technical adjustments in the IT applications and the organizational aspects linked to the deployment of the new customs regime.
The border crossing between Gibraltar and La Línea de la Concepción concentrates daily a high traffic of goods destined for the supply of the Rock. Customs operations and their pace directly condition the commercial and logistical activity of the environment, as well as that of the Campo de Gibraltar itself, where the operators responsible for the dispatch of the loads crossing the border are concentrated.