EU green rules could raise prices in Northern Ireland

RETAILERS in Northern Ireland face increased costs on white and electrical goods such as refrigerators and televisions because of new EU green rules.

British goods exported to Northern Ireland have to follow the EU rules because of the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, which prevents the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The “right to repair” laws mean that manufacturers must provide spare parts for up to 10 years, as well as a repair manual, and make goods easy to dissemble to make recycling easier. They are designed to cut down on the huge amounts of waste produced by broken or obsolete products.

While the EU eco-design rules came into force in the EU on Monday, the UK Government has only recently finished a consultation on similar legislation, including a British right to repair.

If the British laws do not mirror Brussels regulations, retailers will be forced to pass the extra cost onto consumers.

Northern Ireland retailers warned that they would need time to adapt to the change and demanded flexibility in how the laws are enforced.

Aodhan Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said “Unless London and Brussels can come to an agreement on this and other areas, it will mean increased cost for NI households who have half the discretionary income of GB households.”

He said that factors such as the exchange rate would mean sourcing the goods from the EU rather than Britain would be more expensive. “The risk of fridges and televisions exported to NI ending up in EU member Ireland is small enough for the European Commission to be pragmatic,” he added.

“This is yet another issue whereby the European Commission and UK Government need to work together with business in NI to secure the best outcomes and keep costs down for hard pressed NI households.”

Britain and the EU are embroiled in a row over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which requires Northern Ireland to follow single market rules and created a customs border in the Irish Sea.

The UK infuriated Brussels by unilaterally extending grace periods on food checks on GB goods exported to Northern Ireland to protect supermarket supplies, which the European Commission said violated the terms of the treaty.

An EC spokesman said the EU had shown “a huge amount of constructive flexibility” in finding solutions to the “issues that the UK was facing regarding the implementation of the Protocol”.

“We’re willing to find solutions. For that though, we also need the UK to do its own work and to follow up on its promises to implement the Protocol.”