Responding to the publication of the Government’s Northern Ireland and
Ireland Position Paper, , Director General of
the Institute of Directors, said:
“The IoD welcomes this paper from the Government addressing the
issues which will need to resolved along the Irish border as a
result of Brexit. It is a significant step forward but
unsurprisingly throws up even more questions about how much
flexibility and imagination will be needed to overcome some very
fundamental challenges.
“The paper proposes having no border checks along the UK’s only
land border with the EU (Ireland) but equally no border checks
between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. The implication seems
that in order to remove the bureaucracy of customs inspections
businesses will instead be burdened with greater bureaucracy on
in-work immigration checks. This would not be welcomed by SMEs
who will see it as government giving with one hand and taking
away with the other. While we welcome the commitment to maintain
the Common Travel Area, the CTA only covers UK and Irish
citizens, not EU migrants working on the island Ireland. This is
a concern for business because 10% of IoD Northern Ireland
members have EU staff who live on one side but work on the other
side of the border.
“While the prioritisation of an interim solution for maintaining
a shared external tariff is extremely important, alongside a
wider association with or replication of the EU’s Customs Union,
it cannot be stressed enough how important it is for the UK and
EU to reach early agreement on regulatory alignment for a
transitional period to address all of the other issues which
would warrant new customs controls. The Government crucially
acknowledges the need for this on measures relating to agri-food
– particularly importance to the all-island economy – but this
will apply to many other sectors as well.
“The degree of regulatory cooperation needed in the long-term
between the UK and EU, to keep customs and border controls from
being spontaneously reintroduced, would be unprecedented.
Declarations of equivalence can be unilaterally revoked at any
time by either side, and the UK will need to bear this in mind as
it develops an independent trade policy. While full triangulation
of trade policy between the UK, EU and third countries is
unlikely, a system of close collaboration to allow Brussels and
London to keep each other informed of trade developments will be
essential. We would also urge the Government to exercise caution
in how it approaches trade negotiations with new countries during
the transition period.”
