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Renewed machinery checks \u201cunreasonable and unsustainable\u201d, say UUP representatives<\/strong><\/p>\n Unionist politicians have raised the alarm over renewed post-Brexit checks on second-hand agricultural machinery entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, warning they place an unfair burden on local farmers and businesses.<\/p>\n Robin Swann MP has written to the UK Cabinet Office to express concerns that the Government has reintroduced checks reminiscent of the early days of the Windsor Framework\u2019s implementation, causing renewed disruption for the agri-sector.<\/p>\n Mr Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party MP for South Antrim<\/strong>, has joined with UUP Agriculture Spokesperson Robbie Butler MLA<\/strong> in questioning the need for Phytosanitary Certificates when moving used agricultural and forestry machinery across the Irish Sea. <\/p>\n They argue that the current rules are overly burdensome and are disproportionately impacting Northern Ireland stakeholders.<\/p>\n The Cabinet Office, responding through Nick Thomas-Symonds MP<\/strong>, clarified that \u201csecond-hand agricultural and forestry machinery must be accompanied by either a Northern Ireland Plant Health Label (NIPHL) or, if there is the potential for onward movement to the EU, including Ireland, a Phytosanitary Certificate (PC).\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese rules are not new,\u201d the Minister<\/strong> stated, \u201chowever, we are aware that some businesses have not been complying with them. Moreover, this ongoing non-compliance has been repeatedly highlighted by the EU Commission as a significant concern.\u201d<\/p>\n However, UUP representatives argue that the requirements are neither practical nor fairly enforced.<\/p>\n \u201cOur farmers have faced continual hurdles as a result of ill-thought-out policies by Westminster governments,\u201d said Robbie Butler MLA.<\/strong> \u201cThis is yet another example of the Government not understanding the realities facing our farmers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe additional cost and time required to obtain a Phytosanitary Certificate \u2013 a certificate which we understand is not asked for by Irish authorities at the point of sale for farm machinery \u2013 is making business even harder to do for our agricultural sector.\u201d<\/p>\n Robin Swann MP<\/strong> echoed the sentiment, criticising what he sees as a disproportionate responsibility placed on Northern Ireland to safeguard the European market.<\/p>\n \u201cThe burden to protect the security of the Irish and EU Single Market is being put on the back of farmers and businesses in Northern Ireland,\u201d Mr Swann<\/strong> said, \u201cand again we see the Irish Government and EU Commission taking minimal responsibility to protect their own market which they have expressed such concern about.<\/p>\n \u201cThe result of this is greater cost to farmers, both financially and at a cost to their time \u2013 which is unreasonable and unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n The issue highlights ongoing tensions in the interpretation and enforcement of the Windsor Framework, particularly in relation to how Northern Ireland\u2019s unique post-Brexit trading position impacts local industries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renewed machinery checks \u201cunreasonable and unsustainable\u201d, say UUP representatives Unionist politicians have raised the alarm over renewed post-Brexit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[9658,802,748,9660,9661,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,9656,9659,9657,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-293904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-ballymena-news","9":"tag-brexit","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-causeway-coast-and-glens","12":"tag-county-antrim","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-european-union","17":"tag-great-britain","18":"tag-love-ballymena","19":"tag-mid-and-east-antrim","20":"tag-northern-ireland-news","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114920883808231463","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293904","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=293904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}