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Delays of only half an hour at U.K. ports and the Irish border would risk one in 10 British firms going bankrupt, according to a report laying bare the severe risk to the economy from no-deal Brexit.
According to the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), failure to reach a deal with Brussels before March could trigger massive queues of trucks at British borders from a vast increase in paperwork and checks to clear customs.
From a survey of more than 1,300 U.K. and EU-based supply chain managers, the personnel responsible for navigating customs controls for their companies, a tenth at U.K. firms said it would risk bankruptcy if goods were delayed by between 10 and 30 minutes at the border.
The warning comes amid the increasing likelihood of Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal in little more than six months time, after Theresa May failed to win support for her Brexit plan from European leaders and said both sides had reached an impasse.
Several major U.K. firms have warned of the risks from tougher border controls, including the retail chain Next, and carmakers such as Honda and Jaguar Land Rover who rely on thousands of parts arriving from the EU each day.
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