15 June 2020

NI Protocol - the UK's approach and a response from NI business

The Government has published a "command" paper that sets out how the UK will implement the Northern Ireland Protocol while upholding Northern Ireland's place in the UK and respecting the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.

In response, the NI Business Brexit Working Group has published its own paper - Implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol: What Business in Northern Ireland needs & why.

The full Government paper is available on the web link below this article; the response from businesses in NI is also available to download.

The Government paper details a four point plan:

1. Unfettered access for Northern Ireland's businesses to the rest of the UK
2. No tariffs on internal UK trade
3. No new customs infrastructure in Northern Ireland
4. Northern Ireland benefits from UK trade deals.

The key points from the NI Business Brexit Working Group are:

• We welcome the first steps of progress in grappling some of the core challenges arising from the Protocol commitments
• There is a need to move from ambitions to technical detail very quickly
• There's a need for better access for business on this issue with both HMG (e.g. the Border Delivery Group) and the NI Executive
• NI-GB and GB-NI detail is hugely important and needed now, but the integrated nature of the whole island economy is also important
• The solutions that are brought forward need to reflect the needs of business and consumers e.g. applied trusted trader schemes
• An education piece needs to be undertaken by government both in NI and GB about what the protocol implementation means in practice, especially for small business
• Our overriding asks - for representation, mitigation, derogation and compensation - remain essential if NI is to safely navigate this upheaval
• There is little bandwidth or financial capacity amongst the NI business community to deal with this now
• There will be little bandwidth in January to deal with these changes either.

At the end of the transition period when the Northern Ireland Protocol comes into force there will be changes to the way goods move between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Your business may be impacted by these changes if you can answer yes to any of the questions below:

1. Do you move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland?
2. Do you move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland on behalf of someone?
3. Are you based in Northern Ireland and currently receive goods from Great Britain?
4. Do you send parcels between Great Britain and Northern Ireland using Royal Mail or an express operator?

To keep up-to-date with changes, fill in the Northern Ireland Protocol questionnaire from HMRC - available on the weblink below.