Stormont officials take questions on how NI's new trading arrangements will work

NI’s access to Brussels and Horizon

Alliance MLA Sorcha Eastwood asked how NI was being represented in the EU. An official said that The Executive Office have an office there and there is a parliamentary delegation which meets EU representatives in Brussels. They also said any NI institution can access the EU’s Horizon science programme.

InterTrade UK

DUP MLA Gary Middleton asked if there was any detail on the setup, staff and location of the InterTrade UK body set up under the Safeguarding the Union deal. Officials said it would be established under the East West Council and would be established early this year – but had no further detail on the setup of the body such as staffing.

Carbon Border

If the EU brings in a carbon border scheme – there could be an effect in NI. Officials say the impact on NI is unclear – but the it will be reduced if the UK and EU have similar schemes, but divergence could occur between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is the EU's tool to put a "fair price on the carbon emitted during the production of carbon intensive goods that are entering the EU”, and aims to encourage cleaner industrial production in non-EU countries.

Further legislation to come from Westminster

The DUP Chair of the committee Phillip Brett said officials would be busy in the coming weeks as further legislation makes its way through Westminster, apparently referencing the government’s deal with the DUP.

Free trade agreements

Shauna Mageean, EU Affairs Manager, said Northern Ireland’s interaction with free trade agreements has been impacted by the Windsor Framework. “While the framework states that NI should be able to benefit from and be included in free trade agreements with third countries provided that those countries do not prejudice the operation of the Windsor Framework – the Department of International Trade confirmed obligations in the WF would supersede a free trade agreement of there was conflict”.

She cited Trans Pacific partnership – a trade deal between the UK and countries like Australia and New Zealand – which does not apply to Northern Ireland in certain areas.

The DUP’s Jonathan Buckley highlighted that the Windsor Framework limits benefits from the free trade deals – and asked if there was a mechanism whereby problems could be identified early before a deal was signed. Shauna Mageean said the government had pledged to speak to devolved governments before signing deals and had set up a group to look at this. Mr Buckley asked for an explanation as to how NI was able to benefit from a deal on NZ lamb. Shauna Mageean said there would have been discussions on committees under the Framework.

Officials present evidence on recent changes to trade rules to the economy committee

Jessica Jacques from the EU Affairs Office said that the UK internal market scheme, set up under the Windsor Framework, “means a greater range of businesses are considered Trusted Traders and can use this scheme and declare their goods ‘not at risk of entering the EU single market’”.

"From September this year, that will take full effect. So aside from not paying customs duties, there will be reduced paperwork for these businesses. There’s certain criteria to be able to use the scheme – and that depends whether the goods will be subject to further processing in NI. On the other hand, goods which are considered at risk of moving into the EU single market ie Ireland, they must use the red lane and therefore checks and controls are applied.

"In its recent command paper, the government set out an internal market guarantee – saying that more than 80% of all freight movements would be covered by the scheme. There is also easements for supermarket foods through the NI Retail Movement Scheme. That means the same food is available here as in the rest of the UK. So under the Protocol – under its full application – certain items would have been banned”.

"These schemes are underpinned by certain requirements such as data sharing, labelling – you may have seen some of this already in supermarkets – and monitoring of the system as well as a certain level of checks and controls”.

She said new arrangements on parcels, pets and medicines would be in place by September of this year.

On the UK Internal Market Act she said legislation had been made to guarantee unfettered access for NI to Great Britain.

Shauna Mageean, EU Affairs Manager, said the Windsor Framework expands the number of goods moving into the EU market – and the new command paper facilitates that.