The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has updated
the House of Commons on the implementation of the Northern Ireland
Protocol as part of the Withdrawal Agreement with the European
Union.
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to update the
House, and the people of Northern Ireland, on the implementation
of the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of the Withdrawal
Agreement with the European Union.
Throughout 2020 we have worked intensively to ensure that the
Withdrawal Agreement, in particular the Northern Ireland
Protocol, will be fully operational on 1 January 2021.
Our aims, and the proportionate and pragmatic way we intended to
pursue them, were set out in the Command Paper we published in
May, ‘The UK’s approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol’ .
This set three key commitments that we believe needed to be
respected in all scenarios:
We had to ensure that Northern Ireland businesses retained
unfettered access to the rest of the UK market.
Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s customs territory had to be
protected – and that meant that goods that stayed in the UK were
not subject to tariffs.
And we had to ensure that the important GB-NI trade flows, on
which lives and livelihoods depend, were not disrupted; and we
need to ensure a smooth flow of trade, with no need for new
physical customs infrastructure.
And Mr Speaker, I am pleased to say that on Monday the European
Commission Vice President
