Irish Sea border more disruptive to GB-NI trade than the Troubles, says veteran Scottish haulier

Scottish businessman Robert Wilson told the News Letter that if he did not have such a long connection with Northern Ireland, he would consider just halting his trade with the province because of the mountain of red tape now required to move goods from GB to NI.

Mr Wilson said that farmers will pay for the new trade frontier because he has to increase his prices – a story being replicated across multiple sectors struggling to cope with the plethora of new forms, processes, and items such as soil which are simply banned from moving within this part of the UK, regardless of how much a customer is prepared to pay.

He said: “I’ve seen the graffiti in Larne. I got in off the boat last night in Larne and was met with the DAERA inspectors. There were more police there to protect them than there were inspectors.”

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Mr Wilson’s comments came as the EU and UK effectively delayed taking any decisions about even temporary delays to some of the most onerous aspects of the border which are still not in place.

Last night DUP leader Arlene Foster rejected the suggestion of collapsing Stormont. Writing in yesterday’s News Letter, former DUP leader Peter Robinson said the choice for unionism may be to either bring down devolution or “suck it [the new border] up”. But Mrs Foster said walking out of government would be a mistake.

Former UUP MEP Jim Nicholson said Boris Johnson was prepared to sell Northern Ireland to buy Brexit for GB.

Mr Wilson, who has a fleet of seven large articulated lorries capable of carrying heavy agricultural equipment, has been coming to Northern Ireland most working days for 31 years and said that where before a boat could be booked up to ten minutes before it sailed if there was space on it, now it has to be organised hours or days in advance because of customs and other procedures “and the slightest discrepancy means it gets sent back”.

He told the News Letter that his small company had to employ someone just to handle the new paperwork. “We’re trying to recover some of the costs from our customers, but we won’t get all of it.

“I will have to put my costs up. It’s farmers who buy the equipment I bring in, and it’s farmers who are ultimately going to have to pay for this. I used to enjoy what I did; now it’s just bureaucracy, it’s paperwork.

“Basically, if I wasn’t so committed to coming to Northern Ireland, I’d just say it’s not worth the hassle.”

When asked how his current experience compared to the final years of the Troubles, Mr Wilson said: “That was easy by comparison”.

He said those such as Boris Johnson who have suggested that there are just “teething problems” with the new processes were talking “absolute rubbish”. Mr Wilson, who voted remain in the referendum, said that the public had been “promised things that haven’t transpired”, adding: “Boris Johnson promised us an oven-ready deal – well, my turkey’s only half-cooked.”

One of Mr Wilson’s customers in Northern Ireland is Stephen Lewis who runs Genesis Distribution, a Lisburn company which imports new farm machinery.

Mr Lewis said that for a small firm the extra bureaucracy was “too complex and time-consuming” to handle – even with the government-funded Trader Support Service (TSS).

The TSS still requires companies to supply it with all the information necessary for customs declarations and Mr Lewis said that his company was instead simply paying the haulier – who was in turn paying a customs agent – to handle that process.

He said that even for a small company importing an average of about three machines a week, that would amount to an additional cost of more than £8,000 a year – and that comes on top of the sellers in GB having raised their prices, and transport costs from GB having risen.

Mr Lewis also said that just-on-time deliveries of parts from GB, which had been possible prior to January 1 were now “impossible” due to the red tape.

Yesterday Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford accused the government of doing nothing to address a collapse in freight travelling from Welsh ports – much of which comes to the island of Ireland.

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Sam McBride: A curious and dangerous week ends with a first hint of hope for unionists hoping to remove the Irish Sea border

Brandon Lewis silent as PM’s ex-law chief says ministers misled the public over Irish Sea border

U-turn by Boris Johnson as he moves from denying Irish Sea border’s reality to attempting to delay some of its checks

Sam McBride: Read the small print – the Irish Sea border may be impossible to remove, even if MLAs vote it down

British diggers and farm machinery now banned from Northern Ireland without soil-free ‘wash certificate’, due to Irish Sea border

Gardeners snagged by farcical new Irish Sea border rule as British soil is banned from Northern Ireland because of Brexit – and harmful peat is promoted

NI gardeners lose hundreds of seed varieties as major company Suttons withdraws fruit and veg seeds due to Irish Sea border

Sam McBride: Shackled to Brexit, Arlene Foster can’t admit that it has been disastrous for Union – but Irish Sea border is radically reshaping NI

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