London, UK: David Frost, the UK’s Brexit minister, has admitted that the government “underestimated the effect of the protocol on goods movements to Northern Ireland”.
Frost has written an article in the Financial Times, arguing that the EU must revist the Northern Ireland protocol.
He said that some suppliers in Great Britain are simply not sending their products because of the time-consuming paperwork required.
“We’ve seen manufacturers of medicines cutting supply. And there is less choice on supermarket shelves for consumers. The NI Retail Consortium has warned that when the grace period ends in October, supermarkets will face “real, severe problems”.
“We are working round the clock to resolve these problems consensually. We have sent a range of policy papers to the EU to outline solutions. Just last week, we sent a detailed proposal for a veterinary agreement based on equivalence and for an authorised trader scheme to reduce paperwork and checks. But we have had very little back.”
Shane Brennan, chief executive of the Cold Chain Federation, Tweeted: “It’s great that a veterinary agreement is formally proposed – in the right form it will remove 80% of the problems for all food logistics (not just for big supermarkets). It’s time to resolve the ‘equivalence’ / ‘alignment’ impasse – enough of the posturing – time for grownups.”
