If Irish history blindsided the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, then Ireland's geography could be the next big problem.
This week, Irish and European Commission officials reached a draft agreement on how to limit the damage when Irish food products and live animals arrive at continental ports from the UK. What to do about the UK land bridge has long been a worry for Dublin. What makes it an especially delicate issue is that Ireland will have to count on the goodwill of both London and member states to ensure that the free flow of Irish goods to the continent remains free-flowing.
Last autumn, when it looked like the UK was going to crash out without a deal, background discussions intensified. As well as talking to the EU’s Brexit Task Force, Irish officials were in talks with their Belgian, Dutch and French counterparts over how Irish freight might be facilitated at their ports.
Irish officials were anxious that Ireland’s geographical distance should receive some kind of acknowledgement when it came to the next phase of Brexit, negotiating the future relationship between the EU and UK. "It would be a basis for negotiation, while stopping short of flashing neon lights. Ireland is looking for derogations, but you could see how some countries might react."While the 46-page document largely focused on the future relationship, there was a clear reminder of what the UK had signed up to in the divorce: the Irish Protocol and the promise to ensure no hard border on the island of Ireland.
It effectively bundled together existing rules on the food supply chain - animal welfare, pesticide residues, animal feed, controls on products of animal origin - harmonising but also strengthening rules on how food and live animals would be monitored when entering the single market. In January of this year, the UK signalled its intention to sign up to the common transit convention, an international agreement which facilitates the movement of goods through territories in order to reach their final destination.
However, the OCR contains so-called "delegated acts" allowing the European Commission to seek further controls, the so-called sanitary and phytosanitary controls we all learned about with the Irish backstop, when it comes to food, live animals, plants and animal feed.
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