DUP promise of 'unfettered access' to Great Britain meaningless as NI medical devices branded imports by government - Allister
A key promise of the DUP deal which restored Stormont – the unfettered access of Northern Ireland goods into the rest of the UK – has been found to be full of sound and fury but no meaning, Jim Allister has said.
The TUV boss was commenting on new rules brought in by the UK government, which treat medical devices coming into Great Britain from the province as imports.
Post-Brexit deals meant that a regulatory border was created within the United Kingdom, by leaving Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods. However, checks were largely on goods entering local ports, at the EU’s insistence.
When the DUP and the previous Tory government struck a deal to restore Stormont, both parties proclaimed to have secured a “statutory guarantee of Northern Ireland’s unfettered access to the UK’s internal market”.
Mr Allister says that promise has not been realised, with a new law at Westminster highlighting the legal reality of the Irish Sea border.
The North Antrim MP said: “In the context of the Union-dismantling Irish Sea border, and the DUP retreat back into Stormont, the Sunak Government and the DUP leadership, as part of their dishonest salesmanship, promised there would be no restraint on Northern Ireland to GB trade. Section 45B of the Internal Market Act was held up as such a guarantee.
“Now, the Government has amended the Health Bill (New Clause 94) to impose precisely such restraints on Northern Ireland to Great Britain trade in ‘medical devices’ by requiring GB receivers of such goods to seek and hold a licence to conduct such trade, which is described as ‘imports’ - a term applicable to movements from a foreign country, not from supposedly within the same internal market.
“Medical devices include everything from a medical dressing to an MRI scanner. We have a number of important companies in NI involved in the medical devices industry.
“It is preposterous that to do business from NI into GB there must be a licence (which will cost and bring its own bureaucracy) in place. Once more our UK internal market is being trashed and all because we remain under EU control in this sector.