Business leaders have warned that a Brexit “tidal wave” of red tape is going to hit British industry on 1 January even if a trade deal is struck in the coming days. The Confederation of British Industry deputy director general Josh Hardie pleaded with the UK and EU to redouble efforts to get businesses prepared, saying speed was now of the essence. He said he was confident there would be a trade deal in the coming days, because to walk the UK and 27 EU countries over a cliff edge on 1 January would be a failure of politics. As survey after survey shows businesses do not have the full information they need to be prepared for Brexit, Hardie urged the UK and EU to inform businesses what any trade deal would require them to do to be Brexit-compliant crossing from Dover to Calais, or any other UK-EU border. Business concerns come a week after a five-mile lorry queue developed on the approach road to the Eurotunnel in Folkestone as the French rehearsed Brexit checks. The CBI have called on the EU to state whether it will reciprocate on some of the “flexibility” being shown by the UK, which has decided to ease in Brexit customs and regulatory checks over six months to mitigate disruption. The CBI added that some critical information needed by business to prepare was outside the scope of the free trade agreement and needed to be agreed swiftly, including arrangements on cross-border data transfer, permits for business travel for engineers servicing machinery, and in particular rules of origin, which will determine what goods are defined as “British” and eligible for sale in the EU in a trade deal. Either way a cohesive and concerted government and business effort to mitigate the queues and chaos will be critical in the countdown to 1 January and in the immediate aftermath.

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