LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd May, 2020) The Northern Ireland Protocol, a fresh document from the UK government further clarifying its approach to goods entering the nation from the rest of the United Kingdom is likely a means to keep otherwise troubled negotiations between the UK and EU in progress, former Irish ambassador to Canada Ray Bassett told Sputnik.
The UK government confirmed on Wednesday that there will be certain checks in place post-2020 on some goods entering Northern Irish ports from the rest of the UK, although no tariffs will be levied on produce remaining within the UK's unified customs territory. According to the document, entitled "The UK's Approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol", tariffs will be levied "on goods at risk of entering the EU's Single Market at ports of entry" in a bid to avoid the construction of customs infrastructure at the land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
"Here in Ireland, the official line is that they welcome the publication as at least it's starting to get stuff on the table. There was a lot of nervousness that the UK really had no intention of implementing the agreement, so the recognition that there would be checks on goods, which contradicts some earlier statements ... I think people regard it as a step forward," the former ambassador said.
Despite the apparent progress being made, many in Dublin doubt that the protocol will ever be implemented, as the UK will either be able to secure a positive trade deal with the EU or, if both sides fail to reach an agreement, London will simply abandon the proposals, Bassett opined.
"There is a suspicion in Dublin that either the UK is going to get a good free trade deal with the EU so this [protocol] probably won't be necessary, but if the whole process breaks down in acrimony there wouldn't be a lot of confidence in Dublin that the UK is going to actually implement what they've brought forward now. So in a way they're doing this but keeping a bet each way in the longer run, that would be the suspicion here," the former ambassador remarked.
The latest UK government's document again stresses that this would not entail "any kind of international border in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland," which has been a major concern of the nation's Democratic Unionist Party.
Imports arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK otherwise classed as "agri-foods" will, however, face regulations pertaining to legislation that deems Ireland to be a single epidemiological unit for the purposes of animal health and welfare. On these products, documentary checks and physical examination by UK authorities, according to EU rules, would be required, according to the document.
The former ambassador to Canada rejected the notion that this represented a "backtracking" on previous admissions from Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government, confirming suspicions that little has in fact changed when it comes to London's recognition of the need for goods potentially entering the EU market to face customs checks.
"It's a very minimalist document and ... it doesn't hugely contradict what has been said in the past. It doesn't change things in the way that some of the newspapers in Britain are saying. Some newspapers though in Ireland are going in the opposite direction and saying 'this means nothing,' so it depends on where you are standing politically," Bassett said.
Furthermore, checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK have already been in place for a significant length of time, the ambassador stated.
"There's been checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from Great Britain for many years in terms of animal and plant food because being on an island and particularly with an open border you have to have a similar regime in terms of stuff like plant and animal health as pathogens can literally blow in the wind from one jurisdiction to the other. So I think the UK has done the minimum it could to keep the [protocol] on the line in this," Bassett remarked.
The former ambassador also argued that there would, in any event, be a relatively small amount of goods crossing into the EU market from Northern Ireland, with trade between the UK and the Republic of Ireland generally involving the transference of goods via the sea route to Dublin rather than the Northern Irish border.
"Remember, Dublin is a major port for Northern Ireland. The actual amount of stuff coming into the south through the north would be fairly small. There wouldn't be a huge amount. The UK has said that it's only goods where there would be a substantial risk of them going into the EU that would require checks or require customs forms and things like that," Bassett said.
Whilst this would potentially minimize the relevance of the protocol when it came to the need to impose customs checks at ports in Northern Ireland, the question remains as to how the European Union will ultimately react in the face of the otherwise troubled state of negotiations between the bloc and the UK.
"The UK are going to be the ones implementing that and you can be sure they'll be doing that with a light touch. Whether the EU would be prepared to live with that I don't know, but again I don't think this is a huge deal. The only thing is that at least they've put this down on paper and the EU will regard it as a first offer they could work with," he added.
The question of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has otherwise been a major hurdle in negotiations following the UK's referendum on exiting the European Union in 2016.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May had attempted to resolve the issue via the now-defunct "backstop" protocol as means to avoid a hardening of the border, itself an infringement on the 1998 Belfast Agreement, by potentially keeping a post-Brexit UK within a common customs framework with the EU.
Such a potentiality infuriated eurosceptics both without and within her own party who believed it amounted to a "Brexit in name only" scenario for the UK. Her successor Boris Johnson has otherwise been successful in removing the "backstop" from the now enacted Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
However, questions remain as to the ultimate success of ongoing trade negotiations between Brussels and London, with leading officials from both sides bemoaning the lack of progress made to date as the end of the Brexit transition period looms on December 31.
