This is a subscriber-only article
Reports are widely circulating in the British media that the UK wont implement full inspections on EU goods entering the UK on 1 January next year in the event that a deal isn’t concluded on a future EU-UK trading relationship.
This is a pragmatic position to adopt and a reversal of an earlier position where Michael Gove, the minister responsible for Brexit, said that full checks would be implemented.
Covid impact
This comes at a time when the scale of the COVID-19 induced crisis in the UK economy has been crystallised with a 20.4% collapse in GDP in April, a number unimaginable previously.
Politically, the UK remains adamant that it will complete the break with the EU by the end of this year, while economists and the CBI, who represent British industry, are screaming that one disaster is enough to deal with.
Next week, the UK Prime Minister will get involved with EU leaders in discussions to explore how the impasse may be broken. Four rounds of discussion have taken place led by Michel Barnier for the EU and David Frost for the UK but these have led to recriminations and hardening of positions.
Helps logistics, doesn’t address tariffs
For Irish farmers and exporters to the UK, the announcement of no inspections is a minor positive. It means that logistics won’t be disrupted by long queues at Holyhead and Fishguard ports. However, it doesn’t change the UK tariff position which in itself is a deal breaker for Irish exports to the UK, especially beef.
Friction at the point of entry is unlikely to be a major issue unless and until the UK decides to diverge from EU standards.
This is most likely to happen in the scenario where the US and UK are concluding a trade deal which is likely to involve access to UK markets for US agricultural produce produced to US standards.
If that happens, we can expect a greater focus on checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain as that will be effectively entry to the single market given Northern Ireland’s position laid out in the Irish protocol of the withdrawal agreement.
SHARING OPTIONS: