Brexit is now just a week away, but beyond the jubilation of the true believers there is an air of unreality ahead of the trade negotiations.
Among the businesses most needing clear information are those in Northern Ireland, who are still in the dark about how the Irish Protocol will be implemented. Again this week Johnson was asked during prime minister’s questions by the DUP’s Jeffrey Donaldson if unfettered access for Northern Ireland businesses to the UK single market included goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Those controls will instead apply to goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and they will largely apply at the point of entry to Northern Ireland . But the EU has said the UK will only get that if there is "zero dumping" as well, meaning a mutually agreed level playing field on how goods are produced, in terms of labour and environmental standards, as well as climate change, taxation, state aid and competition rules.
In 2016, £11 billion in goods were purchased by Northern businesses from GB compared to £14.1 billion from elsewhere in the North, £2 billion from the South, £2 billion from the rest of the EU and £2.1 billion from the rest of the world, according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency .
While EU and UK authorities are expected to look at ways for customs formalities to be done at business premises, the potential will remain for risk-based random checks at the point of entry. "The physical process of inspecting is quite labour intensive," says a well-placed source. "It’s not something you can do through artificial intelligent systems or IT pre-clearance. Containers coming off boats, cows and sheep, need checks. We need customs agents, we need vets, we need a whole raft of skills. We just don’t have them at the moment.
"The implementation has to proceed," says one senior figure. "It can’t be subordinated to the future relationship. All this has to be done by the end of the year." This week all five main parties in the Assembly voted together to register their objections to the Withdrawal Agreement. Officials believe that such a consensus, albeit expressing a negative view, is a hopeful sign that the parties will try to work together and will grudgingly accept that the Protocol is a reality.
tconnellyRTE Great article. In essence, the agreements by the EU & UK delineate a hard border in Larne for the island of Ireland. An island economy with free access to the SM and CU is underlined. I can see the light at the end of the partition tunnel, & it was turned on by Brexit.
tconnellyRTE Oh, I see. If the protocol is not up and running by the end of 2020, and the UK does not have a trade deal with the EU, goods can flow into NI unhindered, thereby contaminating the SM. If that happens, the EU will put a Celtic border between Ireland and the EU26. Got it.
tconnellyRTE It is absurd to argue that checks should be put in place between GB and NI before the trade negotiations have concluded. It is reasonable for Johnson to argue that a trade agreement could render those checks unnecessary. Get out of your Green Bunker and try to think objectively.
tconnellyRTE With all those difficulties (& more if it's decided that new border infrastructure might be terrorist targets) it'd be a wonder if it's all up&running by the 2024 Stormont vote.Which may be Boris' thinking. If things are going as quickly as possible, what can the ECJ do about it?
tconnellyRTE But FG & Biased media stated former Minister for Homelessness Simon Coveney Scumbag has sorted this out already 🤔
tconnellyRTE Rightly so. Brexit is unworkable, expensive nonsense a Tory vanity project bought & paid for by tax-avoiding rich-elite. What choices for the island of Ireland? becoming Irish for all. What choices for Gibraltar? becoming Spanish.
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