{"id":122139,"date":"2025-05-22T09:15:04","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T09:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122139\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T09:15:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T09:15:04","slug":"northern-ireland-traders-battling-brexit-red-tape-hopeful-about-new-eu-uk-deal-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/122139\/","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland traders battling Brexit red tape hopeful about new EU-UK deal \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

For businessman Dermot Johnson, Brexit<\/a> has meant fewer goods but a lot more paperwork. <\/p>\n

Take organic products, he says: \u201cWe brought in \u2013 we still do bring in \u2013 some organic goods, but there\u2019s a whole form-filling and paperwork you have to do now to send organic goods across the sea [from Britain to Northern Ireland]. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if we\u2019re working for a company that maybe does 30 or 40 goods, but they have got a couple of organic lines, some of them just go, we\u2019re not doing that any more, even though we could sell them.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a typical occurrence since Brexit, he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would probably get organic goods from about half the people we did, pre Brexit, so about half of them have given up on it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Johnson is the managing director of Johnson Bros, a sales, marketing, warehousing and distribution business based in Lisburn, Co Antrim. His firm imports food and consumer products from Britain for sale in Ireland, mainly in the North but also south of the Border. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0The Irish Times view on the EU\/UK agreement and Northern Ireland: grab the advantagesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The frustration is evident in his voice as he describes the years since the UK left the European Union in January 2020. He describes it as \u201cdistraction and uncertainty and paperwork for paperwork\u2018s sake\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat it\u2019s cost us is, it\u2019s taken time, and management time, away from doing things that we should be doing,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI probably spend more time \u2013 as opposed to trying to increase and improve the business \u2013 filling in forms, looking after regulatory [issues], trying to understand it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DermotDermot Johnson of Johnson Bros food wholesaler in Lisburn. Photograph: Arthur Allison\/Pacemaker Press <\/p>\n

From his point of view, the announcement by the EU and UK on Monday that they would work towards a deal to remove most checks and paperwork on agri-food products moving from Britain to Northern Ireland \u201ccan only be a good thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Such requirements have been among the consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland which, because of its unique position both geographically and politically, remains in the UK customs territory but applies EU customs rules. <\/p>\n

This week\u2018s commitment represents potentially the most significant easement of post-Brexit trading rules since the UK left the EU. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Explainer: what is Keir Starmer\u2019s Brexit reset deal?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Both sides have agreed to work towards a deal on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) products \u2013 agrifood and plant produce.<\/p>\n

This would \u201cresult in the vast majority of movements of animals, animal products, plants and plant products between Britain and the European Union being undertaken without the certificates or controls that are currently required by the rules\u201d, both sides said in the agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is huge,\u201d says Stuart Anderson, director of public affairs with the NI Chamber, which represents more than 1,000 businesses. <\/p>\n

Though he emphasises the caveat that this is a statement of intent, rather than a signed-off deal, \u201cwhat\u2019s really interesting is how wide-ranging the SPS deal is. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks all-encompassing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Two figures underline the importance of this for the North. Two out of every three of its goods, retail or wholesale, move between Britain and Northern Ireland, while the main markets for its agri-food industry \u2013 which produces food for 10 million people with a population of two million \u2013 are Ireland and Britain. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s hugely important that the same rules are applied,\u201d says Anderson, \u201cand effectively those barriers to trade have been removed for farmers, for retailers and for those at every end of that agri-food supply chain, and that seems to be the direction of travel.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s \u2018not for EU\u2019 labelling no longer being required, or effectively supporting the movement of things like seed potatoes … they should be able to move freely, and that\u2019s hugely encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the devil will be in the detail. The next step will be to draw up, and reach agreement on, the text of a deal, which will then require some time to implement, meaning existing arrangements will remain in place until then. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really need to know now is: how quickly they will get it done, and how quickly will they implement it?\u201d says Anderson. <\/p>\n

\"UKUK prime minister Keir Starmer and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. Photograph: Carl Court\/Getty <\/p>\n

Many other issues also remain to be addressed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing on customs, and customs is universal, they affect every business moving goods between GB and Northern Ireland … so that\u2019s certainly something we were hoping to see some movement on,\u201d says Anderson.<\/p>\n

He also raises veterinary medicines \u2013 \u201cThe grace period expires at the end of the year, so that\u2019s one to watch\u201d \u2013 and the implications of the last phase of \u201cnot for EU\u201d labelling, which is due to come into force in July. <\/p>\n

Dermot Johnson is working through the consequences. Another characteristic of the new rules in the years since Brexit is that \u201cit changes so quickly, and what it says and what it does is … sometimes, you wonder.\u201d <\/p>\n

He lists many anomalies \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s sort of Alice in Wonderland stuff, really\u201d \u2013 that he is dealing with on a day-to-day basis, from the thousands of commodity codes to inconsistencies around tariffs, as well as concerns, including that the trusted trader scheme set up by the UK government as a support for businesses such as Johnson\u2019s to smooth the import for goods will be withdrawn. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe, like lots of people, do our best, but it\u2019s a mess.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For businessman Dermot Johnson, Brexit has meant fewer goods but a lot more paperwork. Take organic products, he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[54357,802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,1144,16,3106,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-122139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-antrim","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-european-union","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-uk-politics","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114550729875950148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}