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New deal for Northern Ireland – details revealed

[ March 1, 2023   //   ]

The government has released details of new post-Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland following the signing of the Windsor Framework between PM Rishi Sunak and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

The plan includes green and red lanes for trade arriving into Northern Ireland from the GB mainland, depending on whether goods are destined – or likely to be destined – for Ireland.

It replaces the Northern Ireland Protocol under which trade has operated ever since the UK left the European Union and provides a new legal and UK constitutional framework. In order to assuage Ulster Unionist fears of the link between GB and Northern Ireland being weakened, it includes a so-called ‘Stormont Brake’ which means that the UK can veto new EU goods laws if they are not supported by both communities in Northern Ireland.

In a statement, the government declared that the new green lane “removes any sense of a border in Irish Sea” and that Northern Ireland would benefit from same VAT, food and drink and medicines as the rest of the UK.

The new ‘Stormont Brake’ means UK can veto new EU goods laws if they are not supported by both communities in Northern Ireland, going “far beyond previous agreements or discussions on the old Protocol”, it said.

The new Stormont Brake means the Northern Ireland Assembly can oppose new EU goods rules that would have significant and lasting effects on everyday lives in Northern Ireland. (Ignoring the fact that the Northern Ireland Stormont Assembly has not been sitting since February 2022 when the Democratic Unionist Party resigned in protest at the introduction of the Northern Ireland Protocol.)

The Government said the Stormont Brake has been introduced by fundamentally rewriting the Treaty and goes significantly further than the ‘all or nothing vote’ under the old Protocol every four years at most.

Green lane goods would move without red tape or unnecessary checks, with the only checks remaining designed to prevent smuggling or crime, it added. Only ordinary commercial information rather than burdensome customs bureaucracy or complex certification requirements for agrifood would be needed.

The green lane will be expanded to include food retailers such as supermarkets and hospitality businesses, significantly reducing SPS checks and costly paperwork, said the government. A single supermarket truck that previously had to provide 500 certificates can now instead make a straightforward commitment that goods will stay in Northern Ireland. Retailers will mark goods as “not for EU”, with a phased rollout of this requirement to give them time to adjust.

All requirements have been scrapped for trade from Northern Ireland to Great Britain on a permanent basis, including the requirement for export declarations.

Chilled meats like sausages, which were banned under the old Protocol, can move freely into Northern Ireland like other retail food products.

Parcels from people or businesses in Great Britain can be sent to private consumers in Northern Ireland as today, without customs declarations, while business to business parcels will use the green lane.

The same medicines, with the same packaging and labelling, will be available across the UK, without the need for barcode scanning requirements under the old Protocol. The UK will license all medicines for all UK citizens, rather than the European Medicines Agency under the old Protocol. NI’s healthcare industry will have full access to both UK and EU markets through a dual regulatory regime.

Previously banned plants or seed potatoes will once again move without checks and certification under the old Protocol and instead use a similar process to the Plant Passport scheme that already exists in Great Britain.

Meanwhile, all goods destined for the EU (that is, Ireland) will use the red lane.

The Government added that the legal text of the Treaty has been amended, so that critical VAT and excise changes will apply to the whole of the UK. This means that zero-rates of VAT on energy saving materials like solar panels and alcohol duty reforms will now apply in Northern Ireland.

Implementation of the agreement will be phased in, with some of the new arrangements for goods, agrifood, pets and plant movements introduced later this year and the remainder in 2024. In the meantime, the current temporary standstill arrangements will continue to apply.

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