Letter: UK government must do the right thing and insist on the restoration of the UK single market for goods

Although people talk about the Irish Sea border as if it is already with us in every respect, there are a number of senses in which it does not yet apply.

Most importantly, the border is not entirely present because it is not fully enforced on account of the fact that the border control posts that concrete in the division of our country are still being constructed and won’t become operational until July 2025.

None of us really know what it is like being divided in two until the border is properly enforced from next July.

There are, however, two other aspects of the border that were to have come into force this week: the Irish Sea parcels border and the Irish Sea green lane customs border, that have now both been postponed until the end of March.

The government’s postponement of the introduction of these new aspects of the border raises three issues:

First, it underlines once again the enormity of the DUP deceit when at the end of January their leadership solemnly told unionists that their Safeguarding the Union deal was a significant advance on the Windsor Framework, removing the Irish Sea border. Not only has it not been removed but key aspects of it still have not arrived.

Second, it highlights the further practical problems associated with the arrival of the new aspects of the border which the government plainly did not want in the run up to Christmas when MLAs will be asked to submit to the protocol which means effectively renouncing the rights of their constituents to be represented in the making of the laws to which they are subject in some 300 plus different areas for between four to eight years.

Third, the knowledge that postponing does not solve the underlying intractable problems, it just kicks the can down the road to the other side of the vote and closer to the point at which the EU will have the leverage it seeks, fully operational border control posts to impose its border from July.

There is, however, one aspect of the border which came into force this week. This cannot be changed because while EU Regulation 2023/1128 makes provision for the date of the arrival of the customs green lane border on October 1 2023 to be postposed (as it has been), no comparable provision is made by EU Regulation 2023/1231 which mandates that anyone wishing to avail themselves of the green lane SPS border must now submit to the second phase requirements with respect to ‘Not for EU’ labels in relation to dairy products.

This innovation is, however, linked to another postponement which must not be overlooked or misunderstood.

At the start of the year the UK government acknowledged that if producers in GB have to produce separate runs of products for NI in order to accommodate the EU requirement for separate ‘Not for EU’ labelling, the resulting costs were such that there was a risk that some GB businesses that previously supplied NI would decide that, going forward, it was not worth their while.

The government responded by proposing that the best way round this difficulty was to require that all relevant goods produced in GB must have ‘Not for EU’ labelling so there would be no incentive for traders in GB to cease trading with NI.

To this end, the government produced draft legislation and put it out to consultation until March 14, proposing that from October 1 (to coincide with the new Not for EU labelling requirements) all relevant goods in GB must have ‘Not for EU’ labels.

Two weeks ago, the new government let it be known that it has now shelved the proposal and so this requirement will now also not come into force this week.

The imposition of ‘Not for EU’ labels on any part of the United Kingdom of GB and NI on the basis that the EU has divided our country into two through the imposition of an international SPS border, courtesy of EU Regulation 2023/1231 (which is referenced six times in the draft GB ‘Not for EU’ Regulations which the government consulted on earlier in the year!) actively disrespects the territorial integrity of the UK.

It is not for the EU27 to pass legislation first dividing our country into two and then introducing labelling requirements governing the movement of goods from one part of it to another, and yet that is exactly what EU Regulation 1231 does.

The UK government should require, as would any other self-respecting state, that the EU27 recognise and respect the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom of GB and NI, replacing the Irish Sea border with recognition of the actual borders of the UK, serviced on the UK-ROI land border without physical border infrastructure, through Mutual Enforcement.

The civic and economic implications of the government not rising to this challenge are unthinkable and unsustainable but unless and until it does so anything less than the imposition of ‘Not for EU’ labelling on GB products can only have the effect of making the present arrangements even more unthinkable and even more unsustainable.

I very much hope that the UK government will take the long-term view and do the right thing, insisting on the restoration of the UK single market for goods and the full re-enfranchisement of the people of NI within our actual borders, serviced by Mutual Enforcement.

Jim Allister, TUV leader