THE BODY representing the north's biggest supermarkets has said the EU and British government need to show "flexibility" to ensure consumers continue to enjoy "choice and affordability" after January 1.
The appeal from Northern Ireland Retail Consortium director Aodhán Connolly came as it emerged that new customs software for handling post-Brexit trade across the Irish Sea may not work.
The chairman of customs clearance software specialist Agency Sector Management warned in a letter to HMRC that his company could not provide IT support for the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) on shipments in and out of Northern Ireland by January.
CDS will replace HMRC's Chief system which was due to be turned off in March this year but will now initially run alongside the new software.
A House of Lords committee heard this week from industry representatives who raised concerns about the functioning of CDS and the lack of time to train people to use it.
Under the Northern Ireland Protocol goods arriving from Britain will require customs declarations – estimated to be as many as 30 million annually.
The British government has said the delivery of the necessary IT systems is on track.
Mr Connolly told The Irish News that if the business community were making the same sort of IT infrastructure changes they would be phased in "over many months rather than less than 50 days".
He said it was not just CDS that needed to be ready in seven weeks' time but several untested systems, including the Goods Vehicle Movement System and the Trader Support Service.
"The simple fact is that business have grave doubts as to whether these systems will all be ready and we know that some businesses will not be ready no matter what happens now," he said.
"We need to see flexibility from both the EU and UK government if we are to still give Northern Ireland households choice and affordability. “
The warning came as Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the failure of the EU and UK to reach an agreement on a post-Brexit trade deal would be "very, very damaging all around".
Talks between the two parties have been taking place in London this week, but they are not expected to bear fruit despite progress needing to be made soon if a new deal is to be in place when the current arrangements expire.
The Fianna Fáil leader said failing to secure a deal would be "ruinous" for the Britain, and that Ireland would also suffer.
Meanwhile, Economy Minister Diane Dodds has written to Cabinet Office Secretary Michael Gove urging him to ensure "unfettered access" for up to 80,000 freight consignments that go to Britain from the north via the Republic.
"If nothing is done to ensure that goods moving via Dublin are treated in the same way as Northern Ireland goods leaving from Belfast or Larne, then the government is not fulfilling this promise,” the DUP minister said.
The minister has asked Mr Gove to urgently raise this matter with the Republic's government to ensure goods from the north pass through Dublin in the same manner they would from a port north of the border.
Earlier this week, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill warned the European Commission that failure to resolve uncertainty about how the Northern Ireland Protocol would operate could lead to food shortages.
Writing to commission vice president Maros Sefcovi, the Stormont leaders echoed the big supermarkets' concerns of a "real threat to the continuity of the supply of existing food and other products".
