Status: 10/14/2021 1:01 p.m.
The industry association BDI interferes in the dispute between the EU and Great Britain over the special status of Northern Ireland. There are also concerns in this country about the British truck driver campaign.
In the dispute over special Brexit rules for Northern Ireland, the industry association BDI has warned the EU and Great Britain to be faithful to the treaty. “Neither the British nor the EU are allowed to shake the agreement,” said the chief executive of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), Joachim Lang, of the dpa news agency. “Both sides have to stand by their obligations without any ifs or buts. Stability is needed in the new partnership so that mutual investments can continue to be successful in the future.”
EU proposes solutions
The British government recently repeatedly demanded the complete renegotiation of the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed in the Brexit agreement. It also rejects the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as the highest arbitration body for disputes.
The EU ambassador in London recently rejected the demands again. The criticized role of the ECJ is a basic requirement for Northern Ireland’s access to the European single market, said Joao Vale de Almeida yesterday evening in the BBC. “Without the European Court of Justice there is no single market,” said the diplomat.
Instead, yesterday the EU put forward far-reaching proposals to defuse the dispute with Great Britain. Brussels offers a significant simplification of import and customs controls for certain products that are exported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland – such as medicines, food and consumer goods.
Is a trade war looming?
Experts fear a new trade war if London suspends or even terminates the deal. BDI representative Lang demanded that the British government should not refuse to deal constructively with the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol. “Otherwise everyone involved will have to fear spiraling tariffs and further countermeasures against trade policy,” he said, and made London responsible. “Reliability is indispensable in order to deepen cooperation in important areas of economic policy. These include green transformation, digitization, research and development.”
The Northern Ireland Protocol is one of the most contentious issues in post-Brexit relations between Brussels and London. It should prevent a hard border between the British province and the EU member Republic of Ireland and thus new tensions in the former civil war region.
The regulation provides that Northern Ireland will continue to follow the rules of the EU customs union and the internal market despite Brexit. However, this has created a customs border between the province and the rest of the UK, causing delivery problems in intra-UK trade.
Logistics association doubts visa plans
There are also skeptical voices from Germany about the British strategy of solving the truck driver bottleneck. The background is the British visa plans for up to 5000 foreign truck drivers to cope with delivery bottlenecks: “Nobody will accept that”, said the head of the Federal Association of Freight Transport, Logistics and Disposal (BGL), Dirk Engelhardt, of the dpa in London. He doesn’t know of anyone who has applied. Eastern European professionals are rather angry about the actions of the British government. “London wanted Brexit, now they are getting it,” said Engelhardt, referring to the new, strict British immigration rules.
Since January 1st, EU citizens need expensive visas when they come to work in the UK. The UK government recently announced that 127 visas had been issued to tanker truck drivers. According to estimates by the Road Haulage Association, there is a shortage of around 100,000 truckers on the island. That is why there were bottlenecks, empty supermarket shelves and an emergency at gas pumps in many places.
In the EU, too, truck drivers are desperately wanted, in Germany alone there is a shortage of 60,000 to 80,000 specialists, according to the BGL boss. Because they have more secure jobs in the EU and salaries are currently rising significantly, the skilled workers would prefer a job in the international community. The 5,000 British visas with which the government in London wants to attract workers are also limited to a few months. That is a bad perspective, said Engelhardt.