Work has begun at the Calais Eurotunnel exit for a new border inspection post for horses and other large animals as part of a no-deal contingency plan, reports The Guardian.
Controls are also being prepared at the nearby port of Boulogne to cater for the 200,000 tonnes of fish the UK exports through France.
The plans are part of Brexit preparations launched by the French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, in Calais on Friday, in response to more than a year’s campaigning by the region’s president, Xavier Bertrand.
Digging has already begun at Coquelles, the site of the Eurotunnel exit, with funds contributed by its parent company, Getlink.
Under EU rules, animals, fresh food and agri-feed from Britain will be classified as being from a “third country” post Brexit, with checks for disease, traceability, rules of origin and welfare mandatory on the French side.
And although work has yet to start, land for a temporary border inspection post involving customs and sanitary checks has been commandeered at the Transmark fuel stop in Calais off the A16, the main artery between the town and Dunkirk.
Planning for border operations on the British side of the Channel is less advanced because of the continuing uncertainty over the possibility of no deal.
The UK transport secretary, Chris Grayling, has also declared that there would be no border checks at Dover when Britain leaves the EU in March, calling controls “utterly unrealistic”.
However, the French believe this is not a sustainable position in the long term and are anticipating that checks could be needed eventually by Britain, but because of land limitations in Dover and Kent these may have to be done in Calais.
“We are planning not just for day one but day 30, day 90,” said a spokesman for Bertrand.