NI stores call for action in trade row

NORTHERN Ireland’s leading supermarkets have issued a call for urgent action to avoid trade disruption under the terms of the Brexit protocol.

Six of the UK’s leading retailers, representing over 75 per cent of the region’s grocery market, have written to Brexit Minister Lord Frost and the European Commission’s Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, calling for urgent action over trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the Brexit deal, is aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland by effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods. It will lead to a raft of further checks on goods arriving in the region from Great Britain later this year.

The supermarkets said that unless a solution is found, retailers will face rising costs and complexity when moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

They added that the increased checks, additional paperwork and need for export health certificates on products of animal origin could force many retailers to move supply chains from Britain to the EU.

They welcomed extensions to grace periods but said “much more needs to be done before the end of September if there is not to be significant disruption to supply and an increase in cost for Northern Ireland consumers”.

The letter urged the UK and EU governments to enter talks with British retailers, visit their supply chains and distribution centres, and host joint talks between government technical officials and retail supply chain experts to find a working solution.

It warned that “without decisive movement on this issue there will be disruption”, and called on Lord Frost and Mr Sefcovic to “help us to minimise this disruption”.