Simple solution to trade issues
YOUR interview with Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (News, January 8), highlighted a number of problems.
In common with many online retailers, we ship from the Continent into the UK and our retail website (https://british. Healthcare) had to suspend all shipping to the UK from just before Christmas.
Our website is connected to its supply chain via Apps and API that will now have to be adapted to incorporate the digital forms required to import parcels into the UK. This takes an inordinate amount of time.
The key issue here is that the British Government had negotiated a one-year transition period to allow businesses to prepare for post-brexit trade and, instead, it chose to squander that time-period with grandstanding to allow the Prime Minister to claim a last-minute victory against overwhelming odds.
As a result, businesses such as British. healthcare were given minus one hour to prepare to transition, instead of 12 months (ie Brandon acknowledges that guidance on parcels was provided on December 31 and, as the Continent is one hour ahead of us, we had minus one hour to prepare).
Because of this, we have had to pivot away from the UK market to trade throughout the EU27 instead.
As our range encompasses the full gamut of health, fitness, sports, computers, electronics, beauty, perfumes, cosmetics, kitchenware and furniture, we have a decent chance of doing quite well.
Insofar as shipping freight between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is concerned, this can be characterised as EUthird country trade and there is a relatively easy fix for it.
For decades, freight companies in third countries, such as Turkey, Belarus, Ukraine and Norway, have traded successfully and almost seamlessly with the EU.
The common sense solution is for the Northern Ireland Executive to either purchase the right to use the software and digital systems used by these freight companies, or to buy one of these freight companies outright and extend their operations to the Northern Ireland-gb trade route.
DR BERNARD MULHOLLAND British. healthcare