Post-Brexit status of Northern Ireland: New contract – or London pulls out

Broken supply chains, empty supermarket shelves, a lot of bureaucracy: Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit status is causing problems for intra-British trade. The government in London wants to renegotiate – or terminate the agreement with the EU.

In the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the British government is on a course of confrontation with Brussels. In essence, it calls for a fundamental redesign of the protocol that has been regulating trade – specifically the customs controls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland – since Brexit. “We cannot go on like this,” said Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis in the House of Commons.

That is exactly what cabinet member David Frost, who negotiated the Brexit agreement, said in the House of Lords. The government’s position on the Northern Ireland Protocol was presented in both chambers of parliament at the same time and at the same time. Lewis and Frost outlined the problems caused by the protocol: social tensions in Northern Ireland, a reduced range of goods, more than 200 businesses that no longer supply Northern Ireland, a disproportionate amount of red tape.

Far reaching British demands

It was absolutely clear that the British government could activate Article 16 of the protocol under these circumstances, said Lewis. That would mean that the British unilaterally terminate the agreement. The government does not want to do that for the time being, but instead tries to negotiate a new agreement with the EU.

“We want to start a discussion with the EU about this plan right away,” said Lewis. “We should therefore quickly decide on a moratorium, which also means stopping legal measures to ensure that there is room for negotiations and to send a real sign of goodwill to find a solution.”

The demands of the British side are far-reaching, however: In the future, goods that do not meet EU standards should apparently also be delivered to Northern Ireland, and in the case of a new agreement, EU institutions and the European Court of Justice should no longer have supervisory and enforcement powers. The EU should not like these demands.

Big problems for UK businesses

However, the fact that there have actually been problems with the transport of goods to Northern Ireland since Brexit cannot be denied. Archie Norman, head of the retail company Marks & Spencer, also commented on the BBC:

Have a sandwich. This can include mayonnaise, butter, cream, a little meat. Sandwiches typically require three health certificates to be waved through. Our error rate when filling out this large amount of documents is less than 0.0 percent, but 40 percent of our freight shipments have been delayed. That can be six hours, but it is often 24 to 48 hours. This means that most of the cargo in the transport has to be destroyed.

And once all the transitional phases for trade with Northern Ireland have come to an end, the problems will be even greater.