Food businesses are to receive government support for some of the more onerous checks on goods moving from Great Britain into Northern Ireland.
Announced in a government ‘command paper’ on Thursday night, the scheme will cover the “reasonable costs” of moving goods such as meat and cheese that require SPS controls before entering Northern Ireland from next year.
This will primarily cover export health certificates that can cost up to £200 each. The government said the new ‘Movement Assistance Scheme’ would begin in the coming days.
Aodhán Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said the move would “make a tangible difference to keeping shelves full and costs down,” though he added costs would still arise from “customs declarations and the frictions that brings”.
The paper also confirmed that “supermarkets and their trusted suppliers” will benefit from a three-month grace period for checks on animal and plant products, although it failed to clarify if this will be extended to other businesses such as wholesalers, manufacturers, and independent retailers.
While the paper made references to the proposed trusted trader scheme, there are concerns that businesses may not be able to access the scheme in time. Speaking at an Institute for Government event this morning, Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said it has often taken businesses many months to qualify for similar schemes in the past while taking up significant costs as well.
“Putting a huge amount of weight on a trusted trader scheme might sound good in theory, but only if the structures of government can work quickly enough to help businesses get on that scheme in the first place.”
The scheme will be particularly important if the UK and the EU fail to reach a trade agreement, leading to the introduction of tariffs.
The news came after the government announced Northern Ireland would receive a further £400m to deal with the effects of Brexit. It is expected to go towards developing systems to help businesses adapt to the new trading arrangements and “seize trade and investment opportunities ahead”.
Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said the investment would “support Northern Ireland after the end of the transition period, enabling NI businesses and its people to innovate and invest”.
He added the protocol meant businesses in Northern Ireland would be able to trade in a way “no other country in the world will have the opportunity to do”.
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