Letter: Export controls are key to finding solution to NI Protocol problems

Priti Patel is right to say that the Windsor Framework should be re-opened (Former Home Secretary says EU control must end as she calls for government to reopen Windsor Framework), but like the DUP she does not propose a realistic alternative which would protect the EU single market without any changes at the land border.

To rewind to the original problem, the question was how to prevent non-compliant goods, such as the hypothetical "chlorinated chickens", being carried across the border into the Irish Republic in significant quantities.

The first step should be to introduce export controls, that is, changing UK law to make it an offence to export non-compliant goods to the Republic, as proposed in the UK government's command paper of July 2021. The second step should be to set up inspection sites set well back from the actual border where any physical checks on exports could be performed, as briefly proposed by the UK government in the autumn of 2019.

As the Republic can inspect imports of solid fuel at sites away from the border without that provoking a renewal of terrorism, why could the UK not adopt a similar system for goods destined for the Republic?

Dr D R Cooper, Maidenhead, Berkshire