Border controls and mandatory testing: Industry fears collapsing supply chains

Saturday February 13th 2021

Border controls and mandatory testing
Industry fears collapsing supply chains

Because the federal government wants to reduce the introduction of coronavirus mutations into Germany, strict entry restrictions apply to several neighboring countries. A representative of German industry warns that this could hurt the intertwined European economy.

In view of the controls that will apply from Sunday and the compulsory corona test at several borders, the German industry has warned of a collapse in the European supply chains. "Bottlenecks for foreign drivers in Germany, considerable delays when crossing the border and extensive alternative traffic are foreseeable," said the general manager of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Joachim Lang. "Some transports will be eliminated entirely, for example because there is a lack of staff."

After the spread of new virus variants, Germany tightened the rules for entry from EU countries again and in some cases also ordered controls at the border. From Sunday, only Germans, foreigners with residence and residence permit in Germany, seasonal agricultural workers and health workers are allowed to enter Austria from the Czech Republic and large parts of Tyrol. In order to enforce the ban, the federal police are preparing for stationary border controls. Entry into Germany should be possible for a few exceptions, including "personnel involved in goods transport and other necessary transport personnel" – such as mail, freight or empty transports.

According to the information, the classification removes the previously valid exemption privileges for transport employees, so that they now – like every normal traveler – have to carry a negative test result when entering the country. For transport employees, there is no longer an exception to the registration and test obligation, it said. This also applies to carriers who only pass through the areas mentioned in transit to transport goods to Germany. The federal government also classified the EU country Slovakia as an area with particularly dangerous virus mutations.

The federal government must keep an eye on the effects of the resulting bottlenecks in order to ensure supplies to citizens and companies, said the BDI chief executive. "Germany is not an island, but lies in the middle of Europe." According to Lang, German industry is more closely intertwined with cross-border employee structures, value chains and supply chains like no other. In view of the planned border controls, the car and freight transport industry had also warned of interrupted supply chains in production and bottlenecks in trade.