With just days to go, still no move to extend grace period for meats as hardening Irish Sea border puts squeeze on sausages

With less than a week until the first Irish Sea border ‘grace period’ expires and makes moving many types of meat from GB to Northern Ireland far harder, the SDLP has urged a delay to parts of the new trade frontier being enforced.
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From next Monday, anyone moving ‘chilled meat preparations’ – meat which has had foodstuffs, seasonings or additives added to it, such as sausages – from GB to Northern Ireland will not only require a customs declaration, as has been the case since January 1, but will also need an Export Health Certificate (EHC).

The EHC can only be completed by a specialist such as a vet and must be completed for every consignment of a particular meat which requires it every time it crosses the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland.

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A simple EHC can cost about £50 to fill in but one business said that complex examples and out of hours certificates can run to hundreds of pounds each time. The government has accepted that there is a huge cost to businesses and set up the Movement Assistance Scheme which will cover up to £150 for each certificate – although it is not clear how long that rebate will last.

From next Monday chilled sausages will require a costly new certificate to cross the Irish Sea – and will be banned entirely from JulyFrom next Monday chilled sausages will require a costly new certificate to cross the Irish Sea – and will be banned entirely from July
From next Monday chilled sausages will require a costly new certificate to cross the Irish Sea – and will be banned entirely from July

The EHC requirement is only the start of the border being toughened in multiple ways. From the start of July, many British meat products such as chilled sausages will be banned entirely from Northern Ireland.

From April 1, supermarkets will require EHCs for every product of animal origin which crosses the Irish Sea into Norhtenr Ireland. On that date customs declarations will also have to be made for commercial parcels.

Last week a letter by Irish MEPs from every party except Fine Gael – which had already backed a limited extension of the current grace periods – urged European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to allow an extension.

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Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove has asked for the grace periods to last until 2023, but the EU has rejected this.

Yesterday SDLP leader Colum Eastwood and the party’s Stormont minister, Nichola Mallon, called for the grace periods to be extended alongside a commitment to make the Northern Ireland Protocol work and find benefits unique to Northern Ireland because of the arrangement.

They urged all political leaders to finally put an end to weeks of tension and instability by waking up to the economic opportunities of the NI Protocol and by “putting jobs before pointless politics”.

The SDLP proposed: “A short extension, of months, to the previously agreed grace periods in order that any unresolved issues of the immediate workings of the NI protocol can be smoothed out, resolved or fixed.”

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Mr Eastwood said “The SDLP is proposing a twin track approach to make the protocol work for all our people. We are calling for the immediate extension of the grace period to aid businesses and governments to ensure that the workings of the protocol run smoothly.”

But he said that a longer term plan was also needed “to make the most of the competitive advantage that Northern Ireland can harness through the protocol”.

Tunnel irrelevant to sea border: Allister

Boris Johnson’s idea of a tunnel between Northern Ireland and Scotland will do nothing to offset the Irish Sea border, TUV leader Jim Allister has warned.

The North Antrim MLA said: “No one who understands the ruinous constitutional consequences of the protocol will be distracted by fancy talk about a tunnel to GB.

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“Nor, should any be deceived (again) by the promises of Boris Johnson. Welcome as such infrastructure would be – if ever delivered – it would do nothing to dissipate the iniquitous protocol. Its border posts would merely have a new entry point, but we would still be in a foreign single market for goods, under a foreign customs code and VAT regime, all governed by foreign laws we did not make and cannot change, the undemocratic oppression of which would be overseen by a foreign court.”

He added: “The protocol must go in all its parts. It cannot be made acceptable.”

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