More Than 200 Suppliers Stop Selling To Northern Ireland Following Brexit - UK Minister

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st July, 2021) More than 200 suppliers have stopped selling and transporting goods to Northern Ireland since the post-Brexit future partnership agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union came into force, David Frost, the UK's Brexit minister, said on Wednesday.

During an appearance in the House of Lords, Frost said that there had been major disruption to the flow of goods from the rest of the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland since the start of the year.

"We have seen reductions in supermarket product lines. We have seen more than 200 suppliers decide that they would no longer sell to Northern Ireland. We've seen difficulties, not just on the famous chilled meat issues, but on medicines, on pets, on movements of live animals, on seeds, on plants, and on many others," the Brexit minister said.

Frost said that there was a "growing sense" that the UK and EU have failed to find the "right balance" when it came to the Northern Ireland Protocol, the set of rules and regulations designed to ensure that a hard border on the island of Ireland would not be necessary in the post-Brexit era.

The United Kingdom will continue to engage with the European Union to find a solution to these issues, although many of the discussions have yet to be fruitful, Frost said.

"Overall, those discussions have not got to the heart of the problem. Put very simply, we cannot go on as we are," the Brexit minister said.

As part of the Northern Ireland Protocol, food and agricultural products entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom are required to undergo customs checks before they cross the Irish Sea.

The UK left the European Union on January 31, 2020, although the country remained in the bloc's single market and customs union for a further 11 months as negotiators in London and Brussels attempted to reach a wide-ranging free trade deal.

The future partnership agreement provisionally came into effect on January 1 of this year before it was subsequently ratified by the European Union.