Windsor Framework Northern Ireland: Largest employers excluded from trade support due to size of turnover, says Mark Tait of Target Transport

Goods coming into the province which are travelling to the Republic of Ireland or elsewhere in the EU will use the conceptual ‘red lane’, which includes customs declarations and some checks.

Goods to be sold in Northern Ireland will use a notional ‘green lane’ with minimal paperwork and no checks. Companies that use the green lane will be signed up to a trusted trader scheme.

Mark Tait, company director at Target Transport Limited in Randalstown, said a key concern is that many of his customers are excluded from the benefits of the new system purely by the size of their turnover.

“A lot of our customers are frustrated that they are excluded from the UK internal market scheme because their turnover exceeds £2m despite the fact they sell no goods outside the UK,” he said.

“This is what was agreed between the EU and the UK. A lot of them are very, very frustrated by that. It is sort of arbitrary and means some of the biggest employers and Northern Ireland are excluded from the whole scheme.”

He raised the question on September 13 in the House of Lords Northern Ireland Protocol Sub-Committee – but has still been given no answers.

He added: “The bureaucracy that we as hauliers had on Friday last week still applies today, which is a bit frustrating for us because we sort of thought it might make that easier for us, but unfortunately for us at the minute it is certainly not the case.”

He expects retailers to see changes sooner but as his customer base is all commercial they will not see any change for another year, he added.

“It will be an ongoing process. That is why the government has said it is going to be very light touch. Because I think otherwise if they come down hard on some of these new processes, they would very quickly find stuff would disappear from Northern Ireland shelves until we get it resolved.”

Previously he was concerned that only retail businesses would benefit from the green lane, because commercial businesses could not prove the goods and materials they were bringing in would not end up crossing the border into the Republic.

However, one clear element of good news, he said, is that after six months seeking clarification from government, they had been assured that this will not be the case.

A government spokesperson said: “We are seeing very strong business take up of the new UK Internal Market Scheme, with over 1,600 new businesses already signed up.

“The Windsor Framework quadruples the turnover threshold to be classed as ‘not at risk of moving to the EU’ and on top of this includes comprehensive additional protection for key sectors such as food processing, healthcare and animal feed.”

this includes comprehensive additional protection for key sectors such as food processing, healthcare and animal feed.”

A Government spokesperson responded: "We are seeing very strong business take up of the new U.K. Internal Market Scheme, with over 1,600 new businesses already signed up.

"The Windsor Framework quadruples the turnover threshold to be classed as ‘not at risk of moving to the EU’ and on top of this includes comprehensive additional protection for key sectors such as food processing, healthcare and animal feed.

"Dual market access to the UK and EU markets is critical to Northern Ireland’s excellent manufacturing sector, which continues to perform strongly despite global challenges for the sector."