EU exports policy is better late than never

On February 22, 2018 the Advertiser kindly printed a letter headed ‘Easy solution to EU border conundrum’, in which I proposed:

“There is an alternative, and perfectly reasonable, approach, for after we have left the EU, and that is for the UK Parliament to pass a new law requiring all exports to the continuing EU to meet all EU requirements, on pain of penalties.”

Concluding with the explanation that:

“If the existing UK law provides a sufficient guarantee to the Irish and EU authorities that there is no need to check imports from the UK at the border, as it does, then there is no reason why a new UK law could not also provide such a guarantee.”

Now 41 months later I read in paragraph 43 of the government policy paper ‘Northern Ireland Protocol: the way forward’:

"We also stand ready to bring in new legislation to deter anyone in Northern Ireland looking to export to Ireland goods which do not meet EU standards or to evade these enforcement processes."

And, again, in paragraph 62:

“... we are also ready to put in place legislation to provide for penalties for UK traders seeking to place non-compliant goods on the EU market.”

One could say ‘better late than never’ for the UK government to ask Parliament to take this action, which could provide the basis for a system of export licences as suggested in other letters also copied to our local MP when she was Prime Minister, and which would not require the agreement of the EU or the Irish government.

And one could also say ‘the sooner the better’, as that system of regulating the carriage of goods out of Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic would make redundant the present crazy system of EU checks and controls on all goods entering Northern Ireland, even though only a very small fraction of them later cross the border.

Dr D R COOPER Belmont Park Avenue

Maidenhead