Editorial: Essay by haulier flags up alarming concerns about the likely new Northern Ireland Protocol deal
Peter Summerton is a name that few people know outside of the transport industry.
But the managing director of McCulla Ireland has been one of the most important critics of the disastrous Northern Ireland Protocol.
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Hide AdMr Summerton has written critiques of the Irish Sea border and the huge burden that it puts on companies that move goods from Great Britain to NI.
He has given evidence to parliamentary committees about the challenges. He has spoken to people in government who draw up policy. He has talked to the media.
Today Mr Summerton writes in the News Letter about a very worrying possible problem in the coming deal between the UK and the EU over Northern Ireland (scroll down for link).
This experienced freight boss says that the huge political focus on slashing checks on goods travelling across the Irish Sea might mean that the bigger problem of documentation is neglected and actually gets worse.
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Hide AdOne of the early aspects of the protocol that caused so much alarm was the way in which multiple companies in GB simply decided to stop supplying NI. Suddenly swathes of the population began to realise the impact of what had been agreed with Brussels.
Mr Summerton points out that it is the documentation, not checks, that deters the company from continuing with exports to NI which might be 2% of their trade. If this gets worse under the deal, or doesn’t improve, then UK-DUP demands that there be no diversion of trade will ring hollow.
Today’s essay by Mr Summerton is one of a number of reasons why the DUP’s more robust approach to the protocol of the last year has been so necessary. And why if there is the merest hint that the new deal will actually make the paperwork problem worse the DUP has been further correct to withhold support for it until that (and multiple other core problems) is ruled out.