The Dutch government has completed the hiring of nearly 1,000 new customs officers to prepare for a looming “no deal” Brexit, according to a senior official in the country.
Pieter Omtzigt, the rapporteur on Brexit for the Dutch parliament, confirmed the recruitment had taken place – as weeks of turmoil linked to Theresa May’s new plan for exiting the EU paralyse the British government and raise the prospect of the UK crashing out of the bloc.
“As you may be aware, the Netherlands are, after Germany, the second trading partner with the UK within the EU – even before France, for example,” Mr Omtzigt, a Christian Democrat MP told the BBC.
“That means that because of the political uncertainty within the UK, I asked my government a year ago to start hiring new customs officials. They’ve hired almost a thousand customs officials just in case Britain crashes out.
“We’re a trading nation; we cannot afford our customs system to completely get stuck because from one day to the next we also have to check all the British exports of goods and services. We also hired veterinary officials because if you crash out, you also have that problem.”
Dutch port officials told The Independent this year the Netherlands’ customs authorities were aiming to hire between 750 and 930 officials – suggesting the number actually hired is right at the upper end of that early estimate as talks look increasingly likely to fail.
