Business

PLATFORM: Tory brinkmanship over the Protocol needs to stop

There have been a number of important steps from the European Commission in recent weeks around the Protocol
There have been a number of important steps from the European Commission in recent weeks around the Protocol There have been a number of important steps from the European Commission in recent weeks around the Protocol

THE British Government Command Paper in July formalised its objective to seek a renegotiation of the Irish Protocol element of the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU.

While it stopped short of invoking Article 16, that option has not been removed from the table.

This is the latest phase of British brinkmanship. It is not about adapting to the new trading or economic realities caused by Brexit; it’s all about the primacy of narrow English nationalist interests.

Recent weeks have seen a number of important steps from the European Commission.

Firstly, it agreed to an earlier British request to extend grace periods on the movement of chilled meats across the Irish Sea until the end of October.

Secondly, it suspended legal action concerning breaches of the Protocol, signalling a preference for agreed ways forward.

Thirdly, significant moves have been offered to change EU law and ensure no disruption of British medicines being supplied to the north of Ireland.

Finally, the European Commission replied to the Command Paper by advising it will be carefully assessed as to whether it can assist smooth implementation of the Protocol.

Together these steps help to create the atmosphere for finding solutions. The Protocol provides for a joint framework within which present challenges can be pragmatically and proportionately addressed.

A time frame exists between now and late September to constructively resolve outstanding difficulties caused to the flow of trade by Brexit on an east/west basis. But political will is required to do so.

So the immediate focus of this British Government needs to shift towards finding resolutions for genuine concerns of local businesses rather than using these to promote a self-serving Tory ideological agenda. The prevarication must end. Local businesses, traders, manufacturers, and farmers need real stability and certainty. Agreement between Britain and the EU on a SPS deal would make an immediate difference.

Sinn Féin will continue to promote the priorities of our local businesses and the island economy. The Good Friday Agreement (GFA) provides the framework for managing our relationship to the EU.

The Protocol protects the GFA and confers a special economic status on the north. It provides this region with an opportunity to attract new investment and employment opportunities and allows for dual market trade access to the British and EU markets.

Other opportunities arise in terms of access to the EU labour market. This could be looked at as a possible new agreed area of cooperation.

The logic of these new realities commends greater engagement between the EU and the north of Ireland.

More streamlined communication should be developed between our political institutions and civic society, and the European Commission. The onset of the new tranche of EU peace funds – Peace Plus - is one key reason for closer engagement.

The logic of representation for the north in EU institutions by virtue of special arrangements merits careful deliberation.

Such an option would guarantee that the actual needs and interests of businesses, workers and their families are properly understood by the EU and are not hostage to the partisan ideological and tactical agenda of the Tories in Whitehall.

Declan Kearney is Sinn Fein national chairman and Junior Minister at the Executive Office