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There are positive sounds coming from Brussels about the EU being willing to grant the UK request for an extension on meat products entering Northern Ireland (NI) from Britain.
It was also positive that the UK made the request, having acted unilaterally in declaring extensions previously.
The problems with the detail of the NI protocol and the repeated extensions demonstrate the need for a longer transition period between the UK leaving the EU and becoming a third country.
This is also demonstrated by the fact that the UK has also unilaterally extended its own full implementation of border controls until 1 January 2022.
All of this suggests that the UK was not ready for the complete break that it insisted on at the end of 2020.
We are where we are
However, there is no point in looking back because it won’t change anything.
In fact, the big mistake made by pro-EU people in the UK was to try to reverse the decision to leave, rather than focusing on developing a future trading relationship focused on alignment of veterinary and customs controls.
We are now in the space of trying to shape the relationship with the UK completely separated from the EU.
NI protocol
Nowhere is this more sensitive than with the NI protocol.
This is politically sensitive, as it is the intersection of two separate single markets – the UK and EU single market.
EU controls are designed for international trade that typically are based on 20t container units.
In the case of trade between Britain and NI, supply chains can involve units of just a few kilos in a transaction.
To make the NI protocol work, it will be necessary to find a way to move these controls to a risk-based assessment, something that may be an anathema to the rules-based EU, but implementing EU border controls internally in a third country requires particularly creative thinking.
Collaboration rather than confrontation
Additionally, the EU-UK relationship needs to move to a more collaborative rather than confrontational model, as has been the case to date.
This will be difficult to achieve, as the EU is determined that the UK won't avail of a la carte EU participation, while the UK is anxious to create its own global trading identity, separate from the EU.
The first new trade deal between the UK and Australia has indicated a direction of travel on trade policy that has generated concern in British, as well as Irish, farming.
Acceptance by the EU of the UK request to extend the period for meat products entering NI from Britain is a useful starting point for the recalibration of this relationship.
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