Windsor Framework trade divergence debated in Parliament - but Hilary Benn says unionist alternative 'not credible'
The issue of trade divergence caused by the Windsor Framework has been debated in Parliament – with a warning from the TUV leader that it is an “increasing problem of manifold proportions for Northern Ireland”.
However, the Secretary of State Hilary Benn has again rejected the favoured unionist alternative, saying that a system of mutual enforcement “is not a credible basis” for trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
On Tuesday, North Antrim MP Jim Allister secured an adjournment debate in the Commons on trade diversion caused by the Protocol.
He said that the Irish sea border, and all that comes with it, “has caused a huge and increasing diversion of trade”.
Mr Allister told the House of Commons: “We were told, as part of the spin of selling the protocol, ‘Oh, there are protections against the diversion of trade, and it wouldn’t be allowed to happen’. Article 16 of the protocol, we were told, was our safety net”.
It said if the Protocol leads to diversion of trade the United Kingdom “may unilaterally take appropriate safeguard measures.”
Mr Allister said it has led to the diversion of trade, but the United Kingdom Government have not taken unilateral action. “The whole idea of trade diversion and the whole purpose of the protocol was and is to build an all-Ireland economy: to dismantle the economic links between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and enhance links with the Irish Republic, thereby creating stepping stones out of the United Kingdom into an all-Ireland for Northern Ireland. That was the determination that lay behind the protocol”, he said.
He said if trade from NI to GB can be conducted without border checks in the Irish sea “then equally we could do it in the other direction, through mutual enforcement”. But the Northern Ireland Secretary said Mr Allister “argues in favour of what he calls mutual enforcement, but that is not a credible basis for resolving the dilemma created by our leaving the European Union”.
He added: “I am expressing the Government’s view, which is that it is not a credible basis. One thing is absolutely clear: the answer was never to try to wish the dilemma away and pretend that it did not exist”.