Fears that if Republic of Ireland tries to take advantage of Northern Ireland tariff rate it will lead to whole island being treated as EU territory
A unionist MP has voiced fears about what could happen if the Republic of Ireland tries to move goods into the USA via Northern Ireland.
Jim Allister said that there is a risk that Northern Ireland and the Republic will be treated as a single unit if the USA feels that there is cross-border sleight-of-hand going on in an effort to avoid its new tariffs.
The TUV leader made the comments at a time when the picture regarding Donald Trump’s new tariffs is shifting on a daily basis.
It all began last week when Mr Trump announced a 10% tariff on UK imports to America, and a 20% tariff on EU ones (though the rate for some individual types of goods is higher).
This led to speculation that the EU and UK would retaliate with tariffs of their own, and on Wednesday EU member states did indeed vote for a package of “trade countermeasures” to kick in on April 15.
Although the EU hasn’t published the details of what US goods it will apply to, or what these tariff rates are, Reuters news agency said it has seen documents which state that the EU tariffs will apply to US “motorcycles, poultry, fruit, wood, clothing and dental floss” among other things, and will generally be at a rate of 25%.
Subsequently the EU put this plan on hold after Mr Trump said he was pausing the rollout of many of his own tariffs for 90 days – though a 10% rate on imports from both the UK and EU still applies.
If negotiations between the US and EU collapse in the weeks ahead, the original 20% tariff could apply to imports from the EU.
In such a scenario, it is possible that firms in the Republic of Ireland may try to launder their goods through Northern Ireland and into the USA to take advantage of the 10% UK tariff rate instead of a 20% EU one.
“The danger here is that Northern Ireland is abused by the Republic and indeed the EU generally as a backdoor into the USA,” said Mr Allister.
"With Northern Ireland benefiting from Brexit and membership of the UK in terms of the reduced tariff on exports to America, there is a danger that the EU abuses the open border on the island.
"In the event of that happening, one could see a situation where Washington decides to treat the island of Ireland as a unit.”
On Tuesday in Parliament, Mr Allister had asked: "What happens if Northern Ireland is used as a conduit by the Republic of Ireland or the EU to export goods to the US? Who checks those goods and where?"
The News Letter put this question to the Northern Ireland Office. It has yet to respond at time of writing.
As previously reported, it is expected that if the EU does hit the USA with its own tariffs on imports of American goods, then Northern Ireland will have to be subject to that EU rate, not whatever rate the UK decides.
That is because the Protocol / Windsor Framework has kept Northern Ireland under the umbrella of many EU rules, despite Brexit.
The result could be a toughening up of the Irish Sea border, with goods entering the Port of Belfast subject to one rate and goods entering Portsmouth or Grangemouth being subject to another.