Letter: Invest NI is wrong about Northern Ireland’s 'unique market access position'

Invest Northern Ireland has been stressing the benefits of dual access to the GB and EU markets under the NI Protocol/Windsor Framework. But is this all that it seems?

Earlier this year, Invest NI produced a pamphlet highlighting Northern Ireland’s “unique market access position” (https://www.investni.com/sites/default/files/2023-06/northern_irelands_unique_market_access_position.pdf). The main headline was “Northern Ireland. Tariff-Free Market Access to Great Britain (GB) and the European Union (EU)”.

Because this is the lead headline, it has got to be one of the main benefits delivered by the Windsor Framework, hasn’t it? Something that we have, but other parts of the UK do not, right?

Wrong. Actually, this right is derived from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement reached between the UK and the EU. This says that the agreement “provides for zero tariffs and zero quotas on all goods that comply with the appropriate rules of origin [they were produced in the UK or the EU]” (https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/relations-non-eu-countries/relations-united-kingdom/eu-uk-trade-and-cooperation-agreement_en).

This Agreement applies to all parts of the UK, so Belfast has no greater advantage than Manchester or Cardiff in enjoying tariff free and quota free trade with the EU.

Like much of the literature about the Windsor Framework, the Invest NI pamphlet is misleading.

Dr Paul Kingsley, Belfast BT4