Yesterday the Northern Ireland Secretary talked about trade between GB and NI. There are clearly issues to be sorted out.
I thought you might find it helpful to be reminded about what the NI Protocol said about the UK single market, as this now is at the centre of the disputes.
The Introduction to the Protocol states “Having regard to the importance of maintaining the integral part of Northern Ireland in the UK’s single market”…. “Determined that the application of the Protocol impact as little as possible on the very day life of communities in both Ireland and NI”….”Affirming the commitment of the UK to facilitate the efficiency and timely transit through its territory of goods moving from Ireland to another member state or third country.”
These introductory statements make clear the context to interpret the Protocol. The EU accepted the need for NI to be fully part of the UK’s single market and customs union, and wanted assurance that Irish goods could still pass through the UK to the continent without hindrance.
Article One strongly reinforces the main point in the Protocol. It says “The Protocol respects the essential state functions and territorial integrity of the UK”
Article Six states that “Nothing in this Protocol shall prevent the UK from ensuring unfettered access for goods moving from Northern Ireland to other parts of the UK’s internal market”
Article Seven states “The lawfulness of placing goods in the market in Northern Ireland shall be governed by the law of the UK”
There are various other provisions about the EU single market and the handling of goods that might move from GB to NI and then on to the Republic where EU rules matter.
The UK has a good case to ensure the smooth functioning of its own internal market. The ECJ has no standing over the UK’s internal market.
March 11, 2021
Why would the UK NOT what want Irish goods to pass through the United Kingdom to Europe without hindrance? Under what circumstances might this occur, in other words why was it felt necessary to to include this safeguard?
March 11, 2021
The EU didn’t want happening to Irish goods what they were intending to do with UK goods.
March 11, 2021
Presumably it was the Irish who wanted this assurance…
March 11, 2021
Reply to Ian Kaye : ā Why would the UK NOT what want Irish goods to pass through the United Kingdom to Europe without hindrance?ā
Because the reduction in lorries travelling between continental EU and Ireland through the UK will mean less lorries travelling free on UK roads, resulting in less road damage, less congestion, less pollution and fewer lorries held up in Kent when the Channel crossing is not operating through French action.
I am hoping that the BBC is correct in their report of 25/12/2020 that Rosslare will be used by an increasing number of hauliers to avoid using the UK as a land bridge between Ireland and the EU.
March 11, 2021
Are they going to use this agreement to force the UK to allow the running of Irish cattle lorries to Spanish slaughter houses, sometimes in very high temperatures?
March 11, 2021
Ian, I believe you need to ask the eu negotiator Barnier that question, I suspect it was all planned to stir vdL ās witches caldron , preplanned trouble in other words
March 11, 2021
Can I suggest a practical solution. All goods destined to travel from Ireland to mainland EU go Dublin or Cork direct to Roscoff or if via the UK (England) by sealed container. EU to Ireland likewise , but in reverse.
All Ireland to UK ( NI, England, Wales, Scotland) be via trusted traders and done electronically. Same for trade in the reverse direction.
All internal UK trade ( NI, Scotland, Wales ,England) be totally unfettered by international paperwork, and not go via Ireland.
A general acceptance that border dwelling people in the Emerald Isle will always drive across from one side to the other for financial advantage. A close cooperative watch on both sides of the none existant border for organised crime tax dodging.
Any goods that originate in The EU or Ireland that travel to the UK including NI be treated as EU exports. The reverse being true whether value enhanced in NI or not. It should be conducted electronically via trusted traders.
Essentially all trade should be dealt with electronically even if extra information is exchanged. If the EU cannot be persuaded to act intelligently we should revert to WTO terms and via the brilliant work of Ms Truss and her colleagues find alternative suppliers and markets. As already promoted, we should become less dependent on the EU and increasingly self sufficient where practical. We might try being seasonal in our eating habits and not demanding asparagus all the year round.
March 11, 2021
I must apologise if this mornings contribution was too difficult to understand, but so is the idiot protocol either in detail or raison d’etre.
I now read that another piece of nonesense that out does even HS2 is gaining traction. The Boris Burrow no less. If everyone who once aspired to Blackpool for relaxation all wished to go to Belfast instead, I couldn’t imagine them wanting to drive to Scotland first just to get there. Benidorm has much greater pressing attractions and is only two and a quarter hours away wherever you start from. Then there is trade which amounts to the square root of b….r all, important though it may be to the traders. Please advise Boris that we don’t need anything more to be negative about for the next thirty years. If I want to visit NI I will fly there in fortyfive minutes.
March 11, 2021
You have some good ideas but Boris isn’t going to change his mind…..as a senior army officer once told me ”too late – the pens already done the dancing”
March 11, 2021
Good morning
As a supposedly independent country, the ECJ has no jurisdiction in Her Majesty’s Realm. Unless that is, Parliament allows it. Is Parliament and the Government going to allow the ECJ, and thereby the EU, to rule over us ?
We voted to LEAVE the EU. This increasingly looks nothing like that which we were offered and voted for.
March 11, 2021
@Mark B, only in the eyes of democrat’s, unelected unaccountable what some would call dictators believe it is their way or no way.
March 11, 2021
+1
And now we learn that the eu require their energy labels on NI goods, we must be rid of these charlatans.
āš»Archers!
March 11, 2021
The ECJ does have jurisdiction over Northern Ireland. This is what the Withdrawal Agreeement did. Did you not read the bit negotiated by Frost and Johnson which okayed this?
March 11, 2021
@Andy
I couldn’t find that bit. Could you provide a link?
March 11, 2021
It’s strange that JR doesn’t know anything about that either and couldn’t find out quickly.
Reply I do not have time to answer all your queries. My views and answers are usually clear from my blogs.
March 11, 2021
Mike, As usual Andy does not get his facts right. The ECJ does not have jurisdiction over all of Northern Ireland. But the EU, and therefore the ECJ, do have jurisdiction over the EU single market laws applicable to NI via the Northern Ireland Protocol.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5801/ldselect/ldeucom/66/6614.htm
Quoted from above: “258. Northern Irelandās compliance with EU rules in relation to customs and movement of goods, technical regulations, VAT and excise, the Single Electricity Market and State aid will be policed and enforced by the European Commission, the EUās executive agencies and the CJEU, including the possibility of infringement proceedings and the imposition of fines for State liability.”
Boris Johnson swapped UK single market integrity (ceding market control in NI), and UK control of our fish, for zero tariffs for goods traded between the UK and EU. Even though zero tariffs benefits the EU more than the UK. Boris is therefore a fool.
March 12, 2021
Is Boris Johnson a fool? I don’t know, but I’m aware that he is Prime Minister and I am not.
He started talking about a “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU in the autumn of 2018:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45673214
and managed to get through to Christmas Eve 2020 without ever saying what it might be worth to us, and then he shamelessly told a gargantuan lie about its value.
From 1 minute in here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TyveDbMZc
āWe have completed the biggest trade deal yet, worth Ā£660 billion a year, a comprehensive Canada style free trade deal between the UK and the EU.ā
I could work out why Theresa May was lying, but I cannot see it with Boris Johnson.
March 11, 2021
Mark,
Three weeks ago EU announced electrical goods parts would be kept longer to repair said items. This week UK govt announced the same. Would be this be the level playing field kicking in to follow EU rules on environment?
As for JRās selective comment intimating about a foreign court having no part he knows this is not true. ECJ decides payments from UK and ECHR over our courts. A fudge. To a clean break as we all voted for. Johnson signed up to these courts ruling over our country!
March 11, 2021
The people of Northern Ireland voted convincingly to remain, however.
March 11, 2021
@MiCk
Let them join their brothers and sisters in the South then.
March 11, 2021
Mic,
They wanted to be part of UK and it was a UK wide vote.
March 11, 2021
Martin, The people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland voted convincingly to Leave, however.
March 11, 2021
But Mark, Parliament DID allow it, the whole point of Borisās deal was to have NI follow EU rules, including the ECJ. Surely you understood that?
March 11, 2021
Has anyone asked the SNP whether they have any suggestions? They believe that Scotland can leave the UK and join the EU, which would of course create a land border similar to that between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
March 11, 2021
All of these problems are due entirely to your silly, infantile little vote in 2016.
Own them.
March 11, 2021
don’t you ever tire of bleating on and on and on?
March 11, 2021
+1
March 11, 2021
@MiCk
No doubt if the vote had been to Remain it would not have been a ‘silly, infantile LITTLE vote’.
On the subject of ‘little’ – wasn’t it the biggest vote ever in terms of the number of people that voted?
March 11, 2021
silly, infantile does seem appropriate.
March 11, 2021
Donāt know about you but Iāve not seen many stories about cross border guerrilla warfare between Scotland and England. To my knowledge an intentional peace agreement has not been needed recently. Itās possible this might be your difference in Ireland.
March 11, 2021
Andy, seeing as it’s your beloved EU that want to impose border restrictions in Ireland then any threat to peace is coming from Brussels and not Westminster.
March 12, 2021
I don’t think that the parties in Ireland see it that way, nor the US, nor the European Union’s representatives.
I think that matters rather more than your opinion, or anyone else’s in England for that matter.
March 11, 2021
Exactly – Self-inflicted by Ms Sturgeon and naive rethinking Hadrian s Wall. We should charge EU HGV commercial traffic a toll as they are a toll on clogged UK arteries. They benefit from cheaper fuel before coming here then pay no road tolls as we have to driving in the EU.
March 11, 2021
But NI is subject to the ECJ? In which case we have lost. The EU keeps threatening legal action, what court will be the arbiter. The ECJ?
March 11, 2021
Yes, NI is subject to the ECJ. That is what Boris accepted (but Theresa had refused). You might ask why Conservative MPs overthrew Theresa who wanted to protect the United Kingdom, and then voted in Boris and voted for his deal which breaks up the United Kingdom
March 11, 2021
Not true. Precisely the opposite. She was going to the whole of the U.K. in the Customs Union and subject to the ECJ as her solution to the NI problem. āSunday Times March 7thā
The EU saw it as a trap to achieve precisely that and rightly it was voted down.
The problem is that Boris in 2019 āliedā to us all āthere would be unfettered trade across the Irish Sea, no forms, no checks no barriers of any kindā. Last august he said there would be no Irish Sea border āover his dead bodyā and Brandon Lewis tweeted Jan 1 āthere is no Irish Sea borderā
The result chaos and the return of the para militaries. Our host we know saw through this charade but if this isnāt enough, what principle needs to be broken for him to say, enough is enough and resign the whip. Obviously a dissembling prime minister treating a part of the Union with contempt isnāt.
March 11, 2021
May’s deal put the whole of the UK into the Single Market and Customs Union didn’t it, meaning that no international trade deals could be set up.
March 11, 2021
No, Grey, all of NI is not subject to the ECJ, only the EU’s single market rules in NI are. That is bad, and is unnecessary, but not as bad as your exaggeration.
March 11, 2021
Tory MPs keep dropping the ball ….First Posh Boy who ran away when the people voted NO!, then the safe pair of hands who won’t rock the boat, but holed it under the water line, and now the blonde eco-cavalier chucking Ā£billions at his mates’ whims while we seriously wonder if his brains got scrambled by Covid.
What next? – best not to think about Starmer!
March 11, 2021
Is it the members out of alignment with MPs
Or
Is it the MPs out of alignment with members
March 11, 2021
They think so.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/03/10/the-eu-plans-to-build-back-better/#comment-1215025
March 11, 2021
The protocol is a travesty and should never have been signed.
Start disrupting some of the lorries going to and from Ireland and watch them squeal.
Start playing hardball with the French at Calais.
It’s good that a ferry is starting between UK and Tangier.
It’s time we grew a pair.
March 11, 2021
+1
March 11, 2021
Spot on
March 11, 2021
Ian Wragg
Exactly.. Well said
March 11, 2021
It all started with brexit and the horrible lies we were told..
Remember that UK lorries are still exporting to Ireland. The Irish are not going to squeal they have already started six more large vessels from Dublin and Rosslare direct to the continent.
And don’t talk rot- If we start any smart malarkey with the French at Calais we will certainly come off the worst.
Lastly So there’s going to be ferry running between UK and Tangier three or four sailing days away? Great stuff- and will this ferry have a UK flag and be owned by UK intrtests? I don’t think so- then what could it possibly be carrying oranges or dates?- as I said great stuff
March 11, 2021
As I have now been saying ad nauseam for more than three years, all that was needed was a new UK law to guarantee that goods carried across the Irish land border would continue to comply with EU requirements, so the need to inspect them as they crossed would be no greater than it was when we were in the EU, that is to say there would still be no need to intercept and inspect them, no “hard border”.
If the EU and the Irish government did not like that simple solution they could lump it.
There was never any good reason for Boris Johnson to go crawling to them to get a near worthless trade deal for which they were bound to demand an excessive price, and there was certainly no need or justification to betray our fellow citizens in Northern Ireland as he has done, effectively turning their part of the UK into a condominium with the EU:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condominium_(international_law)
“A condominium … in international law is a political territory (state or border area) in or over which multiple sovereign powers formally agree to share equal dominium (in the sense of sovereignty) and exercise their rights jointly, without dividing it into “national” zones.”
“A major problem, and the reason so few have existed, is the difficulty of ensuring co-operation between the sovereign powers; once the understanding fails, the status is likely to become untenable.”
The sooner this untenable situation is brought to an end the better, and without waiting until December 2024 for the Northern Ireland devolved institutions to be allowed a vote on it:
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/northern-ireland-protocol-consent-mechanism
“Under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, the Northern Ireland institutions will be periodically asked to consent to the trading arrangements in articles 5ā10 of the protocol for as long as they are in place. It would give the institutions an opportunity to vote on whether to remain in the arrangements or choose to exit from them. The first consent vote is due to take place in December 2024.”
March 11, 2021
That is the way I saw it Dennis. Trading standards on both sides of the border ensure that goods are compliant and it becomes illegals to export or import non-compliant goods.
March 11, 2021
Your solution would not be acceptable to the EU. It does not stop inferior quality British goods from getting into the EUās single market. The EU has external borders to keep unwanted, substandard tat out. Your smugglers paradise of a suggestion fails to do that.
March 11, 2021
Nothing to stop all that “substandard tat” coming in from China though. Unsafe electrical goods that meet no standard whatsoever, but I guess you are ok with that Andy?
March 11, 2021
You might want to be ruled over by the EU; most of us don’t. Maybe you should move there if our independence bothers you.
March 11, 2021
Thanks, I’m already well aware that the EU would probably reject any such suggestion, because that was the immediate reaction in late 2019 when similar proposals were put forward.
Including the detailed plan developed by a former Director-General at the EU Commission in collaboration with two professors of law, one of whom subsequently wrote here:
https://verfassungsblog.de/backstop-alternatives-examining-the-we-cannot-trust-the-brits-excuse/
“Backstop Alternatives: Examining the āWe Cannot Trust the Britsā Excuse”
That is why I said above, as I have said for over three years, if the EU didn’t like it then they could lump it.
March 11, 2021
Andy, That’s just silly. For inferior UK products to enter the EU, an EU buyer must be involved. It would therefore be the EU buyer who is at fault – the EU buyer who ought to be complying with EU rules, but isn’t. Your (and the EU’s) position on such goods is utterly specious.
March 11, 2021
Odd they were not inferior during the last 40 years Andy.
March 11, 2021
Dennis agree with your first paragraph.
If we are exporting goods to any other Country even outside of the EU our goods have to conform to their standards, or at least an agreed equivalent, likewise anyone wanting to sell goods to us also need to conform to our standards.
Problem is the EU will inspect everything closely (causing hold ups) simply because they like to be in control, and show everyonethey are in control.
Perhaps its time we did some similar checks on some of their finished goods, just to show it can work both ways.
March 11, 2021
Denis Cooper you have answered my question thanks,which I got in early!
March 11, 2021
@Denis Cooper; “all that was needed was a new UK law to guarantee that goods carried across the Irish land border would continue to comply with EU requirements”
Non more useless law than one that any fool knows can not be enforced without Customs checks. Doh!
March 11, 2021
But checks need not be at a border, doh, at least not if it is a border between two friendly countries willing to co-operate to uphold their respective laws, doh. What do you imagine, that unless there is something like the Berlin Wall between north and south it will be impossible to deal with smuggling? Are you aware that there is already intensive and successful co-operation between the customs and excise authorities?
March 11, 2021
@Denis Cooper; ,You mean like the laws that already exist in the UK an d the EU for by way of the TIR conversion that dates from the early 1950s – why do we need yet another set of laws?
March 12, 2021
I mean a new law or laws specifically designed to address the legitimate concern of the Irish government and the EU that the EU Single Market would be contaminated if the open border was used to bring in goods which did not meet EU requirements. That body of law could include provisions similar to existing TIR provisions, and also existing provisions about haulage permits, as well as new provisions for a system of export licences including those for trusted traders, and anything else which would facilitate regulation of the goods being carried across the land border in the continued absence of any checks at the border.
March 12, 2021
@Denis Cooper; “I mean a new law or laws specifically designed to address the legitimate concern of the Irish government and the EU”
Yes and that became the NI protocol…!
How would your suggested scheme create “trusted traders”, if not by inspections (in effect customs checks); how long would it take to become a “trusted trader”; how would your system be policed, unannounced warehouse and/or random port inspections perhaps?
The current problem with the NI protocol is not customs checks per se but delays caused by those checks, your suggested new law(s) does nothing to address that real issue, just the faux political one seen by a few, mostly on the right-wing, here in the UK.
I’m all for some common sense to address the legitimate concerns on both sides, but creating a raft of new NI specific customs law is not the way, it’s not as if the UK does not have Crown dependencies who have already had to deal with much the same issues. How do the Channel Islands co-exist?
March 11, 2021
Customs checks, Jerry, which the EU (in Eire) have every right (and the responsibility) to make, on imports into Eire from the UK. Doh!
March 11, 2021
@NickC; So you want a very hard border between north and south?
March 11, 2021
Not at all, Jerry. Border checks are completely unnecessary. Some physical checks (2%? 5%?) may be carried out at the transporter’s or purchaser’s warehouse in Eire by EU customs, but mostly it will be compliance via computer documentation and trusted traders. The EU simply used NI as a tool to bash the Brits. And Remains lapped it up.
March 12, 2021
@NickC; Without a hard boarder how can you have customs checks, illicit (non EU compliant) goods will simply be driven around!
Once such goods have landed in NI from GB, or another third country, there will be very little to stop such goods reaching the south, even before Brexit there was a significant issue with smuggling between north and south were taxation rates differed.
March 12, 2021
Jerry, The clue is in your word “illicit”. It’s illegal. Already. As is smuggling. Legitimate traders will trade legally compliant goods. And hence those goods can be tracked, and a few percent physically checked, for example in a bonded warehouse. That can take place on both sides of the border, but remote from the border. So no hard border.
March 12, 2021
@NickC; “That can take place on both sides of the border, but remote from the border. So no hard border.”
In other words, the NI protocol, duh!
March 11, 2021
As there are no customs checks across borders in the EU there must be an enormous amount of substandard stuff made in the EU, unchecked, being moved around the EU – so Jerry why aren’t there customs barriers in the EU?
March 11, 2021
@Otto; “why arenāt there customs barriers in the EU?”
Why are their not customs barriers in the USA between States, maybe because the USA is a Federal entity and the EU wants to become such an entity.
The same could also be asked about the UK, what is there to stop someone making substandard goods in say South Wales back-street factory, driving them across the River Severn, and selling them in England – other than national trading Standards. Your point was what, are you suggesting that national trading standards bodies are not fit for purpose?
March 12, 2021
No, I’m suggesting that as no internal customs checks are deemed necessary to stop inferior goods passing between areas, as trading standards are good, why is the EU paranoid about any non EU standard goods passing from NI to Ireland.
March 12, 2021
@Otto; Please read may last reply to NickC, particularly the second paragraph.
March 11, 2021
I always thought a condominium was a place you retired to in Florida.
March 11, 2021
Then goods from trusted GB suppliers going to trusted NI customers should pass without any friction at all.
March 11, 2021
Sea Warrior, Exactly.
March 11, 2021
Sir John, only recently it was pointed out by a member of the EU Parliament ‘the UK doesn’t get it’ NI is required to do all is trade and business exclusively with the EU.
It looks like a language or ego is the EU’s barrier to being neighbourly.
March 11, 2021
It is clear to me that despite having pronounced some words about their allegiance to Queen and country the great majority of parliamentarians still put loyalty to the EU before loyalty to the UK.
As it is not possible for the public to vote out the disloyal members of the House of Lords installed by europhilic governments and so it is still stuffed to the gills with such people. Perhaps they should all be required to take a much stronger oath specifically renouncing any loyalty to the EU.
There has been some cleansing of the other part of the Augean stables but taken across the parties there is still a majority of MPs who prefer the EU over the UK.
Take for example the Tory MP quoted here:
https://www.politico.eu/article/mps-press-uk-government-to-abandon-unilateral-action-on-northern-irelands-post-brexit-checks/
“MPs urge UK to stop āunilateralā action on Northern Ireland Brexit checks”
“Simon Hoare, the Conservative chair of the Northern Ireland select committee, on Wednesday called on ministers to recognize the āvery destabilizing effect on trustā of Britainās decision to unilaterally extend a number of grace periods designed to stagger the introduction of checks at the border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
“Speaking during an urgent question in the House of Commons, Hoare called on Lewis āto desist from a narrative of unilateral action and debate, get back around the Joint Committee table and make sure that the protocol works, that everybody understands that it is here to stay and that it can benefit very significantly the people, the economy and communities in Northern Ireland.ā”
Here is that gentleman speaking a week before the EU referendum:
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2016-06-15b.1825.0
āWhen we started this process, if I had been split down the middle I was 49% for leave, and 51% for remain. Today, I am 127% in favour of remain … ”
And the reasons he proceeded to give for his 127% commitment to the EU at that time are still just as valid – or in my view, invalid – now, and yet he has been put into that position of influence.
March 11, 2021
Thatās some of the Northern Ireland protocol. The rest is the inconvenient bit.
There is also the bit where NI stays in most areas of the EU single market and where ECJ jurisdiction applies. The Conservative Party also agreed to significant checks on products going from GB to NI – particularly agri-food where EU rules are strict, for obvious reasons. Companies need to complete customs declarations to send goods from GB to NI. Madness.
This was all agreed by Frost and Johnson. The NI Protocol has nothing to do with Theresa May. This is all the work of Brexiteers. It has seen the UK threaten to break international law once, it has seen the UK break international law three times, it has seen loyalists reject the terms of the Good Friday agreement and has incurred the wrath not just of the EU but the Biden administration. It is not going well.
We are three months into the Tory Brexit car crash. You were all warned. You thought you knew best. You didnāt.
The public inquiry will be most entertaining.
March 11, 2021
Rubbish Andy.
March 11, 2021
The problem seems to have been exacerbated by large numbers of petty jobsworth EU officials, who – now that we have had the temerity to leave their blasted organisation – are determined to enforce their “rules” with reams of documentation at the new borders.
We must resolve the NI issue swiftly as the Loyalist community are becoming very concerned. Their umbrella organisation have written to Boris Johnson and Micheal Martin to advise that they are withdrawing their support for the Good Friday Agreement – until the Irish Sea border imposed by the Brexit agreement is removed.
Given the history, politics in Ulster have a habit of spectacularly erupting onto the streets. This is not a issue that Johnson can ignore, or prevaricate over. We should make every effort to swiftly get food back into their supermarkets.
March 11, 2021
I think that if you tried to import whatever into the US, or to carry on whatever service there, then you would find rather more “rules” than you do with the European Union.
March 11, 2021
MiC
In case you missed it the point is a foreign country having control over part of the UK.
March 11, 2021
+1
March 12, 2021
You mean the US having control over those military bases on UK soil?
From which it can take whatever action it likes, even against then non-UK enemies, as it has done?
I don’t recall any European Union country or institution ever having done anything remotely like that, do you?
Yes, that must be what you meant.
And then there’s the extradition of British people who have never even set foot in the US…
March 11, 2021
And in this so called internal single market, that is for us to,police only, white goods going to NI from the U.K. have to be EU badged the U.K. having accepted some EU standards lock stock and barrel.
Transparently Borisās assertion about seamless trade etc was a con.
March 11, 2021
It seems that the reason we could not work within the EU (lour civil service gold plating all EU diktats however much they hampered the UK) remains a problem with our civil service gold plating a Northern Ireland protocol that did not intend to create a border down the Irish sea.
Our civil service needs to learn, and most importantly be willing, to implement the spirit rather than the letter of the law and consider what is good for the UK first
March 11, 2021
Indeed.
March 11, 2021
We should remember the EU functionary Selmeyerās comment āNorthern Ireland must be the price of Brexitā. It seems still to be governing the EUās approach to this. So it looks like this is all going to have to be tested in court / arbitration. How absurd.
March 11, 2021
It seems the EU doesn’t much care what’s in the protocol, their childish tantrum over their vaccination failures – including flat-out lies about UK’s vaccine export measures – shows they are unable to act in good faith and have no respect for agreements commercial or otherwise. We should just do whatever is needed to supply NI with food and goods and let the EU go through the disputes resolution process.
March 11, 2021
The EU likes to be in control of everything, and if they can cause the UK extra problems because we dared to invoke BREXIT all the better…
It’s past time that the UK started to not just stand up to this bully, but also started to throw our weight about and got tough with them.
March 11, 2021
But it seems that we are going to continue not checking EU goods into the UK until October whilst they crap all over us. What is Johnson up to?
March 11, 2021
Off topic, but I gather that Wokingham Council has received Ā£300,000 from the Woodlands Trust to plant more than 250,000 trees across the borough.
Where exactly does the council propose to plant the 250,500 trees? As far as I’m aware there are no green spaces left in Wokingham that could accomodate them.
March 11, 2021
Well as time goes by the car parks will become deserted, auto-driven taxis to takeover so they could be dug up and trees planted.
Unlike Joni Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ lyrics:-
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
They took all the trees put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar an’a half just to see ’em
March 11, 2021
@Sakara Gold
On the open spaces between Wokingham and the A329M and the M4.
Oh, no, hold on, that’s all been covered with houses within the last 10 years.
How about that golf course near Gowring’s. Not Sand Martins, the disused on on the other side of the road.
If they do find little green patches to plant these trees, will those patches then be protected from having even more houses on them.
It is high time that Wokingham and Wokingham Without were connected together by some more vast housing estates. Heathlands Garden Centre and the pick’n’mix farm on the other side of the road (Gray’s) are prime candidates for being flattened and covered with awful, tiny boxes with miniscule gardens.
What is the delay? For heaven’s sake get the rest of Wokingham concreted over before some nutter plants a quarter of a million trees.
March 11, 2021
300 acres of prime farmland to be taken for a solar farm in Shropshire. They should taste good.
March 12, 2021
They wouldn’t look good on the barren grouse moors though, would they?
March 11, 2021
The NI protocol is just another weapon for the EU to try to undermine the U.K. as part of their ongoing post Brexit wars.
It should be swept away along with other manufactured difficulties, like bureaucratic obstructionism at continental borders, which are designed to hinder U.K. exports.
We should give notice of a move to WTO terms as the current agreement is more trouble than it is worth.
The problem is Johnson is not minded to do that. He is a fundamentally weak Prime Minister.
Instead, we will get tough words from Lord Frost for the benefit of UK tabloids – a continuing good cop, bad cop routine with Johnson versus (āour friendsā) the EU.
Unfortunately this has no real purpose other than to delay/deflect criticism of government action/inaction.
March 11, 2021
I tend to agree with the general thrust of your post. If we ditched the agreement we could take lots of money in Tariffs which would have a negative effect on EU exports to the UK with very little extra inconvenience to ourselves. After all, the EU could hardly more obstructive at the border than they are now.
March 11, 2021
What is the exact situation? Could we now legally decide to cancel the present agreements with the EU and simply move to World Trade conditions? All this agro scarcely seems worth the effort
March 11, 2021
Qubus, Yes the UK as a sovereign state can make agreements with other states, and unmake them. But we would look pretty silly abrogating the T&CA and WA without good reason. Fortunately the EU is providing us with many good reasons.
March 11, 2021
We cannot just cancel international agreements without there being severe consequences, for instance what if the Spanish decided to cancel article ten of the Uthrect Treaty that refers to Gibraltar. There are also dozens of other treaties with regions and countries around the world including the Anglo Irish Treaty 1922. All ofvthis talk about throwing out treaties is nonsense.
March 11, 2021
This trouble with the NI Protocol and the other problems with the movement of goods to the EU, and lies regarding vaccine export bans, is a continuation of the EU punishing us for succeeding with Brexit and dissuading other member states from even thinking about leaving. Then the Commission makes a complete mess of their vaccine supply and roll-out encouraging some of the member countries to turn to Russia.
It is time we stopped being conciliate and polite to this inept bunch and told them in no uncertain terms exactly how trade and transportation of goods will be carried out between all parts of the UK to NI and Ireland.
March 11, 2021
The EU would not agree to having an open back door to its market so the UK , in order to obtain any agreement said ” Ok mate we`ll just break op the UK and use our magic border ideas on the Irish Sea ” ( psst and hope to wiggle out of it later ) .
It does not matter what sort of “Case ” anyone makes. Its that simple and trying to be a smart pants about it is just tiresome
March 11, 2021
Newmania, There is no “open back door” into the EU single market. Every legitimate EU purchaser of UK (or any other third country) goods must comply with EU rules. That trade can easily be monitored by the EU, and any business or person who infringes EU law can be prosecuted by the EU. Smuggling is the only other route. But smuggling is already illegal.
March 11, 2021
It is impossible to reconcile what is happening on the ground with your contribution to the debate published here this morning.
How, for example, can :
āThe lawfulness of placing goods in the market in Northern Ireland shall be governed by the law of the UKā
be interpreted as no soil whatsoever being allowed to remaining on farm machinery sold into NI ?
Surely,” governed by the law of the UKā must mean that it is just as legal for a tractor with residual soil to be sold between neighbouring farms in Dorset as it is to a farm in NI ?
There are numerous other examples. Why, for example, are garden centres in Ireland no longer allowed to sell plants such as Roses grown in the rest of the UK in English soil ?
Is this “gold plating” by UK customs officials, interference in the UK single market by EU officials, or are there other clauses in the protocol that make a nonsense of the one I have quoted ?
The explanation has to be one of these three – Which is it ?
March 11, 2021
John, on ChrisS point “Why, for example, are garden centres in Ireland no longer allowed to sell plants such as Roses grown in the rest of the UK in English soil ?” So does it also follow British grown plants are unable to be exported to the whole of the EU now? Let the British public know this.
Have the British government said that plants grown in the EU can no longer come into the UK? If this is to be a thing then it has to be reciprocal – a level playing field surely.
March 11, 2021
The third one, Chris. All goods in NI have to comply with EU law – that’s what the Protocol says. So, since GB goods don’t have to comply, there have to be checks between GB and NI. That is what the oven ready deal is . It got Brexit done, and carved open the UK
March 11, 2021
In the context of the articles you have quoted, I question the wisdom of the EU’s claim against the UK.
The EU Parliament has not yet ratified the ‘Trade and Cooperation Agreement’ and it therefore has not been absorbed into EU Law. If I am right, how would their claims be viewed by the ECJ. If non ratification means that the Agreement has not been legally adopted, would the ECJ be able to refer to the unratified Agreement in any judgement?
If the NI Protocol is the only legal document of agreement appropriate to this application to the ECJ, then the UK Governments actions are lawful. More to the point, perhaps it suggests that the EU’s enthusiastic application of their import regulations to goods obviously not destined for the Republic are unlawful.
March 11, 2021
The NI Protocol is part of the Withdrawal Agreement. Nothing to do with the TCA
March 11, 2021
Did anyone actually read the Protocol before signing it? Did MPs scrutinise it?
Probably no more than the other lunacies they have signed us up to.
So the EU whips up a second potato famine for NI….the weather there is not good for producing seed potatoes you know! And deprives it of a whole variety of seeds, livestock and muddy tractors.
What a betrayal, and all in terror of a āhard borderā. (Never mind the EUās 5 hour imposition of one!!).
Effectively NI is trapped in the economic sphere of the EU and the Republic.
March 11, 2021
There is no solution to any of these problems. Your brexit was always going to be a pile of ordure, it is intrinsic to what it is.
At least admit your responsibility for it.
The people of NI voted Remain, as did the Scots.
An all Ireland-Scotland union looks rather attractive, don’t you think? I reckon Wales would join too.
March 12, 2021
suits me – why do we keep Wales?
March 11, 2021
Did MPs scrutinise it? Obviously JR didn’t otherwise he would have replied sO
reply Yes I scrutinised it and recommended against it
March 11, 2021
thats the problem – the others are a pushover for Civil Servants and PMs.
March 11, 2021
That’s the aim of both the EU and the British political class of which Mr Redwood’s tawdry party’s is a fully paid up member.
NI has become an inconvenience so ‘they’ ditched it. Like freedom of speech, democracy and strong morals, they’ve all become such a tedious bore for the slime that’s infected and subsumed for political gain our nation’s political and social culture.
March 11, 2021
Everhopeful
“Effectively NI is trapped in the economic sphere of the EU and the Republic.”
Yes, because the RoI bravely hiding behind EU coat tails is getting into position to make a grab for NI, and we have politicians soft enough / corrupt enough to let ’em pull it off.
March 11, 2021
Steve, Boris thinks he can ward off the EU with bombast.
March 11, 2021
It’s with goods coming into NI from GB but goods also originating from outside the EU that the Protocol is mainly concerned with. Goods moving from NI to GB is a matter for UK customs as such goods could also be originating from the EU or outside the EU ? After months and years negotiating this protocol we signed off and now we should stick with it and make it work- the world is watching and if we are to have any credibility with other prospective partners moving forward then we had better make sure we honour our agreements
March 11, 2021
Chas, France didn’t give monkeys about the world watching it keep refugees in horrid conditions in Calais for years, the world wasn’t watching them put people into office blocks in Paris without sufficient sanitation they’re still getting UN critique now. The UK paid France millions to guard their border what happens they set of thousands of dingies where is the ‘world’ watching that and France going back on their agreement?
March 11, 2021
Re the ECJ here, the EU seems to have plans: It seems the EU will seek to bring its legal measures against the UK for extending the grace periods in NI under EU law. The FT reported this from the Sefkovic briefing to COREPER (EU ambassadors) on Tuesday:
“Brussels has identified legal grounds in the EU and UK’s Brexit treaty that would give the ECJ jurisdiction over the row, even though the court’s remit is limited to breaches of EU law”.
The article was by Jim Brunsden on 9 March (‘EU governments back legal action against UK in Brexit row’). The FT has many excellent, high-level contacts within the EU and its various member-state committees, so I’m sure what it reports is 100% accurate.
Personally, I’m with Lord Trimble et al, when they explained last year that the NI Protocol breaks the GFA. It’s also ever clearer that a WTO exit would have been much better for the UK.
March 11, 2021
Lord Trimble is a mischief maker and not very smart giving out bad advice toslike minded Unionist and tory
types and also to anyone else who will listen and all from his comfortable ivory tower seat in the Lords. Spare me Trimble
March 11, 2021
Sir John, the protocol also notes the need for ROI to be able to fulfill its obligations under EU Single Market rules. This is incompatible with the selected bits you have quoted and is the heart of the issue. Mrs May’s solution seemed a more clear cut way forward but now we have signed a deal that has three incompatible goals: protect the integrity of the UK internal market, the integrity of the EU single market and the principles of the GFA
March 11, 2021
Villaking, The EU’s single market is “protected” by EU rules applicable to EU importers who buy stuff from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (or from other third countries). If EU traders buy substandard or illegal goods then the EU needs to prosecute them. UK goods traded within the entire UK do not affect the integrity of the EU single market.
March 12, 2021
The three goals are not incompatible, but compatibility is not achieved with this particular deal.
March 11, 2021
and in other news the Indian government annouces that it is increasing the size of its spend on its space programme by approx 50%, and we are still giving that country “aid”…
March 11, 2021
and there are over 100 Indian Ā£Billionaires.
March 11, 2021
and development support programmes (not aid) to china
March 11, 2021
Your government needs a reporting section on the DFT website where companies big and small can go and detail precisely what problem they are having exporting to Ireland, give a word count limit so people have to be specific. The DFT need to advertise it is available and then investigate if there is an easy solution to the paperwork problem that is causing any issue and you then would get a correct feel for the exact issues and not what is reported back in the Guardian. Regular popping up issues that you can then solve, the solution could be on the same reporting web screen i.e. Have we already resolved your issue check here.
March 11, 2021
Question No. 1: If āNothing in this Protocol shall prevent the UK from ensuring unfettered access for goods moving from Northern Ireland to other parts of the UKās internal marketā, then why has the UK government allowed the EU to ban the sale of Northern Irish eels in GB? Why is Lord Frost doing nothing about this?
Question No. 2: If “The EU accepted the need for NI to be fully part of the UKās single market and customs union”, then why has Lord Frost had to delay the application of the Protocol in order to ensure access of goods from GB to NI? This demonstrates that the Protocol did indeed obstruct the movement of goods. Why did the UK government allow this to happen? After all, as I have said here before, the border guards are employed by the UK government, and the UK government can therefore give them any orders they want (as evidenced by Lord Frost now telling them to desist with certain checks). So why did the UK government allow this problem to arise in the first place?
Question No. 3: What on earth has the movement of goods from te Republic of Ireland to other EU and third countries, through mainland GB, got to do with Northern Ireland? This is clearly completely outside the remit of the Protocol, and should have been part of the UK-EU trade agreement. Why did the UK government allow this to be included in the Protocol? It is nonsense.
I’m afraid that, any way you look at it, the UK government has been very weak and has prioritised pleasing the EU rather than protecting NI and the integrity and sovereignty of the UK.
March 11, 2021
Boris is a real British Bulldog. He will march into Brussels, virtually – if necessary, lay down the law and tell them that we British are not to be trifled with.
On a more serious note, I think we should ban trade with the EU.
March 11, 2021
don’t hold your breath.
March 11, 2021
It would be nice to know exactly what percentage of goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland are then exported to the EU via the Republic of Ireland and vice versa and the actual value of those goods.
March 11, 2021
Its was a sad day for the people when Gove negotiated the protocol, and Boris signed the protocol and the MPs voted to support the protocolā¦ā¦youāre all guilty
March 12, 2021
All seventeen million of you are guilty.
Now own your preposterous mess.
March 11, 2021
Jacob Rees-Mogg Predicts Ā£20 Billion Cost Of Parliament’s Refurbishment
What planet are MPs from
March 11, 2021
build a new place for Ā£5bn in Birmingham, Sheffield or Derby (proper Levelling up ) – sell Westminster for celebrity apartments for Ā£10bn…..nice profit for a place falling down.
March 11, 2021
That seems a very good idea – no wonder the govt. hasn’t thought of it.
March 11, 2021
Is the Treaty covered by the Vienna Convention on Treaties? This confirms that National Sovereignty is paramount to the treaty. This, with your article quotes from the official document, makes me wonder, as has been reported from the USA, why the new POTUS will not accept that Britain is not breaking any Laws.
March 11, 2021
The EU is making the classic error that politicians have been making since 1922, which is to try to settle Northern Ireland issues over the heads of the people who live there. If the EU continues to act as if it can impose its own idea of a convenient system on NI in ways that have a hostile impact on the people who live there, they need to remember that there are two ways that NI can react. One is for there to be pressure for Irish unification – which is what the EU, ROI and the Biden Administration all hope for – and the other is for NI to vote to throw the EU out and let it settle its own Irish problem, which is precisely the absence of a land border in Ireland.
March 11, 2021
Agreed- the people of NI should be given a vote as to whether they want to be in the EU or not
March 12, 2021
They had one and they resoundingly voted “IN”.
Do you not remember?
March 11, 2021
I have a letter in our local paper, the Maidenhead Advertiser, with this well chosen heading:
“EU deal ‘crass betrayal’ of Northern Ireland”
“For months Boris Johnson banged on about getting a “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU.
The template for this UK-EU deal would be CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada, which has yet to come unto full force, but with the UK taking the place of Canada as the counterparty to the EU.
But he never said how much that kind of treaty might be worth to us, or what the risks might be.
That there are seen to be risks is evident from the levels of opposition to the deal on both sides.
However as far as I know nobody has suggested that it has the potential to split Canada apart.
It does not require one of the Canadian provinces, let us say British Columbia, to live under swathes EU laws in perpetuity, with EU customs officers standing behind Canadian customs officers to oversee their work as they check incoming goods.
Yet that is the crass betrayal that Boris Johnson has agreed with the EU for Northern Ireland.
He has given the EU a trade deal which is of marginal economic value to both parties but about twice as valuable to them as to us, he has consigned part of the UK to continued EU domination, and he has put at risk the integrity of the UK.
Perhaps his idea was that he could sign up to all this but later renege on the deal; it is certainly beginning to look like that, and it is not a good look.”
Theresa May could have something worthwhile to say about that, but I don’t expect her to do so.
March 11, 2021
I am still waiting for this government to comply with the terms of the referendum – leave the EU
March 11, 2021
The EU has the ear of the US President and despite all the wincing by UK Politicians that the ECJ has no powers over the UK, if the case goes against the UK Gov then trade sanctions will follow.
March 12, 2021
US Presidents are only ever interested in locations for their military bases, ours included.
They are keen to trade with UK, but exporting – not so hot on importing – exactly the positon with EU.
March 12, 2021
Yes, now then, this “sovereignty”, about which you endlessly fret?
March 13, 2021
I have never claimed I was after sovereignty – do your homework before you accuse.
March 11, 2021
āDetermined that the application of the Protocol impact as little as possible on the very day life of communities in both Ireland and NIā
Why Southern Ireland ? it is’nt our problem.
Let the RoI rot, we shouldnt care a bugger for countries that insult and ours.
March 11, 2021
Breaking News …. The UK has suspended implementing new Brexit-related controls on imports from the EU. This is a unilateral decision without demanding any reciprocity from the EU and helps EU exporters but does NOTHING for UK exporters. Imposing more controls on imports from the EU would be a GOOD thing, as it would deter imports from that bloc. There is nothing that the EU supplies that we cannot either produce ourselves or buy from elsewhere, so we need to stop bending over to help an EU that clearly wants to harm us.
March 11, 2021
Iām now really confused, does our government work for us or the EU, everything is topsy-turvy
March 12, 2021
Well, for nearly three decades since the EU Single Market was established in January 1993 we have allowed goods from the EU to just flow in to the country without any routine inspections, on the basis that EU law will provide a sufficiently high level of assurance that they will be of satisfactory quality. Now we have left the EU but the other countries are still in it and still subject to EU law, and so there is no logical reason why we should rush to intensify inspections of the goods we import from them. But equally at present we are still applying the same EU laws as them, which have been retained as part of our domestic law, and so there is no logical reason why they should rush to intensify inspections of goods we export to them. It will only be when we start to diverge from EU law that it could make sense for them to start checking our exports, and even then it would be possible to avoid that if they were prepared to accept a new legal guarantee that the goods we send to them will all comply with the relevant EU requirements.
March 12, 2021
On the one hand a complete go slow and niggardly at best/ in many cases malevolent customs control on UK imports to EU where a mountain of uncleared / to be inspected goods is being built up, airily dismissed by our government (who seem to count empty outbound trucks as a measure of freight) as mere teething problems. SME exporters dont have many votes but they do create jobs and taxes and these are inevitably decreasing but can be put down to Covid.
On the other hand we will be waiving controls on imports, as empty supermarket shelves and pharma plus rising prices to pay for the paperwork and delays would quickly be picked up by the press and public and not be a good look.
What a shambles.
March 11, 2021
Oh dear the government kick the can of the new coal mine down the road, so we won’t use the coal but we will import stuff from China and India using far dirtier power and production plants.
What a terrible lefty woke snowflake government we have.
March 12, 2021
Agree
March 13, 2021
The Northern Ireland protocol is entirely unnecessary and should be scrapped. Let the Republic of Ireland put in place its own EU compatible import border controls. The only threat to the Good Friday Agreement would arise from a resumption of Republican violence, in which case we should end it.
March 15, 2021
The likelihood of a significant proportion of the small amount of goods traveling between England and NI passing into the republic is minimal, especially compared with the overall size of the EU economy.
It is blindingly obvious that this amount of cross-border trade is no threat to the single market. It’s all political bluster on the part of the Eurofanatics of Brussels. Unfortunately Brussels’ Irish poodle, Varadkar, sold us down the river when a more experienced politician like Bertie Ahern would have told Brussels how he would sort it, if only they were not so obsessed with controlling everything from the centre.
At this late hour, it could still be easily solved by the UK and Ireland agreeing that the amount of goods passing between England and NI should be limited by value to no more than used to cross the Irish Sea before we left, plus a small increase each year to cope with growth and inflation.
That would require no more than a declaration of each shipment by value with very occasional checks on arrival in NI.
So what if the occasional second-hand tractor finds its way from an English farm sale into the Republic ?
What damage is that going to cause to their precious single market ?
It may well have been made in the EU in the first place !