Protocol promise: PM in vow to trigger Article 16 if trading difficulties worsen
PRIME Minister Boris Johnson has said his Government will have no hesitation in triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol if “disproportionate” problems arise as a result of the Brexit deal.
Mr Johnson made the comments in the Commons yesterday in response to a question from the DUP’S Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
Article 16 allows the EU or the UK to unilaterally take appropriate safeguard measures if its application leads to “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist”, or to diversion of trade.
Sir Jeffrey said: “The Prime Minister promised us that Northern Ireland would continue to have access to the UK internal market, yet in my constituency consumers are facing empty supermarket shelves, they can’t get parcels delivered from Great Britain.
“Small businesses can’t bring in spare parts and raw materials into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, steel importers are facing tariffs, and other problems as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“So what I and the people of Northern Ireland need to know from the Prime Minister, the leader of the United Kingdom, is what his Government is going to do to ensure this — will he consider invoking Article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol to resolve these issues?
“The trader support service is welcome, but it isn’t the solution alone. We need direct Government intervention to deal with this now.”
Mr Johnson replied: “I can tell the right honourable gentleman that at the moment goods are flowing effectively and in normal volumes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and so far no lorries have been turned back.
“Yes, of course there are teething problems.
“What I can say, what I can confirm to him, is that if there are problems that we believe are disproportionate, then we will have no hesitation in invoking Article 16.”
Sir Jeffrey welcomed Mr Johnson’s response.
He said: “It is encouraging to hear the Prime Minister’s preparedness to use Article 16 to remedy the problems created by the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“With significant problems at ports and the transit of goods into Northern Ireland massively disrupted, the Government needs to act immediately to address the needs of their citizens living in Northern Ireland.”
He also called for the UK and Irish Governments to “give a period of derogation and extend the grace period so as companies in Great Britain have time to get systems and processes in place”.
However, DUP MP Ian Paisley criticised Mr Johnson’s comment that empty supermarket shelves here was down to “teething problems”.
Mr Paisley asked: “What did we do? What did we do to Members on those benches over there to be screwed over by this protocol?
“Ask your hearts, every single one, what did we do? Because what has happened with this protocol, it has ruined trade in Northern Ireland and it is an insult to our intelligence to say it is a teething problem.
“Tell that to my constituents.” He added: “This grace period needs to be extended by at least 12 months.”
Former Secretary of State Julian Smith said supermarkets here should be given a grace period throughout 2021.
He said the UK and EU needed to work together to resolve issues connected to the protocol.
He asked Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove: “Will he use his negotiating talents, the relationships he built up last year in completing the protocol, to make 2021 a grace period for supermarkets in Northern Ireland?
Mr Gove said talks would be held. He also told MPS there is “not so much an overzealous” application of the rules by bodies such as the Executive, but noted: “There is, in the way in which some of the rules are applied, a rigidity which we do need to address and that’s why, for example, on VAT, on steel imports and on groupage, we’re taking the action that we are.”
Meanwhile, UUP leader Steve
Aiken said the Assembly should be meeting to send a clear message to the Government “that the huge problems created by the border in the Irish Sea need to be addressed”.
He said: “I find it remarkable that whilst Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP has tabled an urgent oral question in Westminster to address the horrendous disruption to trade created by the border in the Irish Sea, his colleagues in the Northern Ireland Assembly don’t think it urgent enough to be discussed on the floor of the Assembly chamber this week.
“The UUP tabled a petition to recall the Assembly from its Christmas recess last Friday because it is not due to meet until Monday, January 18. It smacks of a lack of urgency.
“I am not surprised that parties which called for the rigorous implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol won’t sign the recall petition, but I am disappointed that the DUP, the party which held the balance of power at Westminster when Boris Johnson was negotiating his deal with the EU, have failed to do so.”