Rocky road

21 December 2020 By Ed Cropley, Aimee Donnellan Follow @edwardcropley

Countries have cut air links with Britain, and France has halted road freight amid a new Covid-19 strain. Brief halts are bearable, and may even shove the UK to an EU trade deal. But sustained disruption or less effective vaccines would jeopardise a strong 2021 global rebound.

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France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Israel, India and Canada all shut off travel ties with Britain on Dec. 21 after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned of a highly infectious new strain of Covid-19.

The French government has closed its border to arrivals from the United Kingdom for 48 hours, which means no lorries can leave the English port of Dover, the main gateway to Europe.

The UK port of Dover processes around 10,000 trucks moving between Britain and France each day, according to the UK Road Haulage Association.

British supermarket group J Sainsbury warned on Dec. 21 that gaps will start to appear on shelves within days if transport ties are not quickly restored with mainland Europe.

Property companies, airlines and travel companies listed on the FTSE 250 index suffered the biggest stock market falls on Dec. 21. UK shopping mall owner Hammerson fell 12.5%, easyJet fell 11.2% and leisure and travel company Carnival fell 9.1%.

Meanwhile, the euro was up 1.51% at 0.91 euros versus 1 pound sterling by 0918 GMT on Dec. 21.

Context News

The French government has closed its border to arrivals from the United Kingdom for 48 hours, which means no lorries can leave the English port of Dover, the main gateway to Europe.

The UK port of Dover processes around 10,000 trucks moving between Britain and France each day, according to the UK Road Haulage Association.

British supermarket group J Sainsbury warned on Dec. 21 that gaps will start to appear on shelves within days if transport ties are not quickly restored with mainland Europe.

Meanwhile, the euro was up 1.51% at 0.91 euros versus 1 pound sterling by 0918 GMT on Dec. 21.

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