The Windsor agreement was widely acclaimed as the final solution to the Brexit problem, with the Irish border being the UK’s only land border with the EU.

As has been often pointed out, cross-border trade on the island of Ireland was one of the most complex problems in the outworking of Brexit.

In agriculture in particular, there is an exceptionally strong cross-border economy, the island of Ireland being a single market even though it is two separate jurisdictions.

The original protocol was intended to manage this, but it quickly became apparent that it was simply not fit for purpose to manage internal UK trade, as well as cross-border trade.

What works for container ships with consignments extending to thousands of tonnes doesn’t work for a small refrigerated van travelling from Britain to supply delicatessens or a florist.

Detail absent

The Windsor Framework appeared to address the operational difficulties with the protocol and was cautiously welcomed by business, despite the wider political difficulties. As is always the case, business looks and usually finds a way to make things work.

However, almost three months after the high-profile announcement of the Windsor Framework, there remains little detail on how it will function on the ground as opposed to a Powerpoint presentation.

This week, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) told the House of Lords European affairs committee that they still don’t know the detail on how the red and green lanes will work for goods entering the EU and Northern Ireland only from Britain only will work in practice.

Labeling products for UK only is a major element of this and business will need a lead-in time ahead of implementation in October to make it work. As of now, the knowledge isn’t there.

Bonfire

Elsewhere this week, the UK government announced that the proposed bonfire of EU laws on the UK statute book before the end of the year has been cancelled.

While this has caused consternation among more hardliner Brexit advocates, it is welcome news for businesses engaged in trade with the EU.

Many of these laws form the basis for trade and companies wanting to export to the EU would be bound by EU requirements in any case, just as they are bound by US regulations when trading with the US. The reality is that from a policy perspective, much of EU law is in alignment with UK thinking.

The other big challenge facing the UK in implementation of full border controls from October is this having been deferred on three occasions previously.

This will have a significant impact logistically on Irish exports to Britain because while most major Irish exporters are familiar with rules for exporting outside the EU, the volume of trade with the UK will bring an additional administrative burden.

Notwithstanding the difficulties that full UK border controls will cause Irish exporters and the frustration of delay on detail for red and green lane rules on trade between Britain and Northern Ireland, the UK and EU are beginning to find a way to coexist post-Brexit.

This is with a higher administrative burden that could lead to less EU sales to the EU by smaller exporters later in the year, but, from an Irish farming perspective, the risk of a full-blown trade war and tariffs has diminished.