Minister hands Biden a stack of reasons Protocol is hurting trade
Britain seeks to soften US stance on Northern Ireland impasse by showing red tape required for goods
‘Americans look at it and think “OK, maybe that is a bit over the top” and “Maybe do the Brits have a little bit of a point here?’”
BRITAIN has presented Joe Biden’s officials with a 6in stack of paper to show how damaging the current Northern Ireland Protocol is to trade.
Conor Burns, the Northern Ireland minister and the Prime Minister’s representative to the US on the protocol, said the regulatory forms – the number required to bring a single container load of goods from mainland Britain into Northern Ireland – helped him explain to Washington officials the impact on businesses and consumers, and why Britain wanted changes.
It follows warnings from the US against overriding elements of the protocol unilaterally. Nancy Pelosi, the Democrat house speaker, said last week that doing so could damage the Good Friday Agreement and the UK’S chances of a free trade deal with the US.
The protocol created an Irish Sea border between Britain and Northern Ireland, avoiding a hard border in Ireland.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said the protocol had driven up the cost of living. It has refused to enter into power-sharing in Stormont with Sinn Féin after recent elections.
Mr Burns said the Government wanted a negotiated settlement with the EU over the protocol, but would “do the right thing for our country”. He addedd that showing US politicians regulatory paperwork, given to him by a haulage company in County Antrim, had a “powerful” effect.
He told The Daily Telegraph: “That is the bundle of documents to bring a single container load of goods from Great Britain into Northern Ireland. [The haulage company] said to me, ‘Minister, it takes two lever arch folders to bring a container load of goods. Crucially, [the goods are] destined for Northern Ireland. Nothing on that container that requires those forms will ever find its way to see dawn in the European single market in the Republic of Ireland’.”
Mr Burns is showing the bundle to any officials or politicians he meets in Washington. He said: “That is a powerful sign. When I say to someone that moving from Scotland to Northern Ireland, within the UK internal market... That is the equivalent, in an American context, of a truck moving from Texas to Florida.
“I think that is a point Americans look at it and think ‘OK, maybe that is a bit over the top’ and ‘Maybe do the Brits have a little bit of a point here?’”
The minister said in the US there was an “appetite to hear directly from the UK Government”. He added: “We know President Biden’s unshakeable commitment to the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, and that is widely shared in America, and it is widely shared across political parties in the UK and in Northern Ireland specifically.
“[But] It is clear the protocol, as it is being implemented, is the thing that is putting the greatest strain on the durability of those agreements.”
Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, has proposed a “green channel” of no checks for British goods intended for sale in Northern Ireland, and a “red channel” for those crossing to the Republic of Ireland. She has said the “firm preference” is to negotiate with the EU, but Britain could override parts of the protocol. This has led to warnings of a potential trade war with Europe.
A week ago Derek Chollet, a senior adviser to Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said a “big fight” between the UK and the EU was the “last thing” Washington wanted, and there should be “no unilateral acts”.
Mr Burns said: “I think there is a recognition [in the US] … that the protocol, as it is being interpreted and implemented, does not command support with anyone in the unionist block post the recent Stormont elections. It is now unarguable that it is the protocol, that is the impediment to the restoration of devolved power-sharing government in Northern Ireland.”
He added: “What possible risk does a container-load of foodstuff destined for sale for Sainsbury’s in Northern Ireland – Sainsbury’s has no stores in the Republic of Ireland – what possible danger do those products, journeying into Northern Ireland, from another part of our UK internal market, place to the [EU] single market?”
He said it was time to “take stock” of the “lived experience” of the protocol 18 months on, adding: “Let’s step back and find a way to recalibrate it. Not to change it, not to tear it up, throw it away, or do any of the other emotive things one hears it described as. Let’s look at a way we can recalibrate it to make it work in the way that we intended it to work for the people of Northern Ireland.”