HUB OF THE WORLD Felixstowe is the answer to Remainer’s post-Brexit fears and can handle £80billion of goods annually


Britain's biggest warehouse on the Suffolk coast already uses customs tech and can handle 25 times the Irish border trade
IT is Britain’s biggest warehouse – but the doom-mongering anti-Brexit brigade would prefer that you did not even know it exists.
Felixstowe, on the Suffolk coast, is Britain’s biggest and busiest container port, handling £80billion of goods every year.
World trade flows without a hitch at Felixstowe port and it deals with 25 times the trade of the Irish border

The vast majority of the four million containers that pass through come from outside the EU — but there are no catastrophic queues, stacks of paperwork or ludicrous checkpoints as a result.
Non-EU goods must be declared and processed, and whining Remainers insist that doing this with EU goods would cause chaos if we leave the customs union. They say the country will become a bureaucratic basket case.
That is baffling news for the port workers in Felixstowe.
Their system is so efficient that some EU containers, arriving on non-EU ships go through the processing system anyway as it is so painless.
 Containers arrive at Felixstowe, which deals with £80billion of goods annually
LOUIS WOOD - THE SUN
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Containers arrive at Felixstowe, which deals with £80billion of goods annually
Shipping journalist Dean Cable explains: “Some politicians say leaving the EU will be bad for us but it doesn’t have to be and Felixstowe proves that.
“Goods come and go without fuss, whether they are from inside the EU or not.”
 Marie Maersk, outside Felixstowe, as the port deals with four million containers from outside the EU
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Marie Maersk, outside Felixstowe, as the port deals with four million containers from outside the EU
No wonder Brexit naysayers never mention this place when they talk about Britain’s post-Brexit trading arrangements.
They would prefer you to think that if we left the customs union, lorries at Dover and Folkestone will be stuck in queues 30 miles long.
Our haulage industry will grind to a halt, they claim, and Britain will be gripped by food shortages.
Most controversially, they say a hard border complete with checkpoints will have to be built between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
But anyone who visits the port of Felixstowe will quickly realise that is utter baloney.
Brexit will work — get on with it 
Jason FlowerLogistics Boss
For a start, it deals with 25 times more trade than the entire Irish border — which handles £3billion a year — and does so without a hitch.
Across the 8,360-acre site on Friday afternoon, things are busy, but calm — without a customs officer in sight.
Down at the docks, the vast vessel Marie Maersk, newly arrived from Sri Lanka, was being unloaded by crane, with no complicated paperwork.
Dean tells me that it is the 11th largest container ship in the world, capable of holding 18,270 containers. All have come from outside of the customs union but will be on the road within the hour.
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Felixstowe is proof that leaving the customs union will not be the logistical disaster that some warn it could be.
Figures show an estimated 98 per cent of non-EU crates pass through the port of Felixstowe as quickly and easily as goods that arrive from within the EU.
This is because the non-EU goods have cleared customs before they even reach Britain thanks to a digital cargo-tracking system called Destin8.
 Felixstowe is proof that leaving the customs union will not be the logistical disaster, writes Miles Goslett
LOUIS WOOD - THE SUN
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Felixstowe is proof that leaving the customs union will not be the logistical disaster, writes Miles Goslett
 Adding EU trade to the high-tech Destin8 system in Felixstowe could 'be achieved in a matter of minutes'
LOUIS WOOD - THE SUN
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Adding EU trade to the high-tech Destin8 system in Felixstowe could 'be achieved in a matter of minutes'
Tax officials at HMRC monitor every single non-EU container ship using the system, working out the tariffs and duty owed. Intelligence gathering and data analysis helps identify 80,000 of the four million containers to be searched and monitored for any infringements.
People who work in the freight industry are adamant that Felixstowe’s systems can be adapted for Ireland.
They say no hard border would need to be built and trade can continue as before.
And it will not cost billions of pounds nor take years because everything is digital.
Talk of creating a border is ridiculous
Kate HoeyLabour MP
Jason Flower is managing director of KWL Logistics and chairman of the Felixstowe Port Users’ Association, an independent trade body which represents 115 warehouse keepers, shipping lines and hauliers — some with business interests in Northern Ireland.
Although he voted Remain, he said: “Brexit will work. It’s got to work. The public voted out. Get on with it.”
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Asked whether there is any need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, he says: “Not with documentation nowadays. All they care about is the movement of the cargo and the duties and taxes involved. I don’t see the need for a hard border because everything is digital now.”
 People in Felixstowe are baffled by Remainers' obsession with the hard border issue with Ireland
LOUIS WOOD - THE SUN
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People in Felixstowe are baffled by Remainers' obsession with the hard border issue with Ireland
 The system in Felixstowe is so 'painless' that some EU containers, arriving on non-EU ships, go through the processing system anyway
LOUIS WOOD - THE SUN
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The system in Felixstowe is so 'painless' that some EU containers, arriving on non-EU ships, go through the processing system anyway
In Felixstowe, adding EU trade to the Destin8 system could be achieved in a matter of minutes. Alan Long, chief executive of MCP, the company behind Destin8, says: “It would probably involve a few extra keystrokes.”
No wonder people in the town of Felixstowe are baffled by Remainers’ obsession with the hard border.
Resident Katrina Andrews, 56, said: “There’s so much scaremongering about how Britain must go softly, softly.
“My husband’s a crane driver at the docks. I’m sure talk of a hard border is nonsense.”

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