Business group Logistics UK has called for a rapid UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to reduce trade friction affecting freight movements to and from Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
The appeal followed a meeting in Belfast on 25 February between Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn and members of the Northern Ireland Business Stakeholder Group.<\/p>\n
Trade friction and air cargo impact<\/p>\n
Logistics UK said streamlined SPS arrangements would help ease checks and administrative burdens that continue to affect supply chains, including time-sensitive air cargo consignments moving across the Irish Sea.<\/p>\n
Deputy Director of Public Affairs Ben Garratt said the meeting provided an opportunity to press for a \u201cspeedy introduction\u201d of an SPS agreement with the EU and to highlight concerns about the current trading environment.<\/p>\n
He said the Windsor Framework had improved processes compared with the previous Northern Ireland Protocol, but warned that practical challenges remained for operators.<\/p>\n
Windsor Framework and rising costs<\/p>\n
Industry representatives also discussed how the Windsor Framework could be optimised for the logistics sector, particularly in relation to data checks, labelling requirements and clarity of guidance for hauliers and freight operators.<\/p>\n
Concerns were also raised about the potential extension of the maritime element of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to Northern Ireland. Logistics UK warned that if shipping linked to Northern Ireland came fully into scope, it could increase costs for freight movements across the Irish Sea.<\/p>\n
The organisation said higher compliance and transport costs risk deterring suppliers in Great Britain from serving the Northern Ireland market, potentially adding pressure to consumer prices and discouraging investment.<\/p>\n
Sector central to economic growth<\/p>\n
Logistics UK described freight and logistics as critical to Northern Ireland\u2019s economic performance, with more than 6,000 businesses employing nearly 70,000 people \u2014 around 8% of the region\u2019s workforce.<\/p>\n
The group said it was ready to continue working with government to ensure that trade arrangements support efficient cargo flows, safeguard supply chains and enable the province\u2019s economy to reach its full growth potential.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Business group Logistics UK has called for a rapid UK-EU sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to reduce trade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[230357,1144,230358,230359,16,15],"class_list":["post-792380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-logistics-uk","tag-northern-ireland","tag-sanitary-and-phytosanitary-sps","tag-sps-deal","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116142263791576857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792380","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=792380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}