'Tech fixes to Northern Ireland Protocol are well and good but don't solve national sovereignty issue'

That is the view of Sir Reg Empey, speaking after a number of reports made reference to a computerised cargo-checking system which the EU is currently reviewing.

Bloomberg, the global financial news outlet, reported the following on Tuesday:

“The UK and EU are close to a major breakthrough in their months-long spat over post-Brexit trading rules in Northern Ireland...

“The EU has begun testing the UK’s live database tracking goods moving from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland, people familiar with the matter said.

"If the bloc is satisfied, it could pave the way for an agreement on customs checks in the Irish Sea that are a major source of tension between the two sides.”

Details on this system are scant.

The News Letter has asked DAERA, the UK government, and the EU for further information about it – including whether such an electronic system could do away with checks on goods entering NI ports from GB, by relocating them to the land border.

No response had been received at time of writing.

UUP peer and outspoken Protocol critic Sir Reg Empey told the News Letter: “We were always of the view that technology could help, but that was swept aside by the Remainer-type attitude of ‘no we can’t do that, we can’t do the other’.

"Of course technical advances are possible. I think they all need to be explored.

"But that in-and-of-itself doesn’t change the treaty. There are mitigations to make life easier, but there’s also the question of the treaty itself, and that requires a major diplomatic effort by the UK to get the treaty changed – because that is where, effectively, our constitutional problem lies.”​​​​​​​

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