Brexit: UK trucks board ferries, Eurotunnel trains morning after transition period ends

Trucks boarded Eurotunnel trains in the United Kingdom without issue on Friday, the morning after Britain completed its divorce with the European Union.

Traffic volumes at the freight terminal in southern England were low, as usual on the first day of the year.

Brexit took effect in substance on Thursday at the stroke of midnight in Brussels, or 2300 London time (GMT), at the end of a transition period that largely maintained the status quo for 11 months after Britain formally left the EU on Jan. 31, 2020.

Trucks also boarded one of the first ferries to cross the English Channel from the northern French port city of Calais to Dover in Britain on the first official day of the divorce between the UK and the EU.

Around 10 trucks boarded the Spirit of France ferry at Calais port, one of the first ones to reach the UK from France after "Brexit" took effect.

Cast as the dawn of a newly independent "global Britain", its exit from the world's biggest trading block means the return of customs formalities on the island nation's frontier with Europe for the first time in several decades.

British and European businesses have warned of carnage at the border as they learn to navigate a wall of red tape and paperwork that threatens to disrupt the smooth flow of nearly one trillion euros in annual trade.

MORE: https://globalnews.ca/news/7550576/brexit-uk-eu-new-year-britain/

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