Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“With NI business leaders lining up to pay homage to Mrs May’s plan for a border down the Irish Sea, I wish to repeat a key question which has gone unanswered:-
“With £11.6Billion of goods flowing annually from GB to NI, why do our business leaders think it is better to prioritise the £2billion which comes from the ROI and ensure for them frictionless entry at the price of a regulatory border for the far greater volume that comes from GB?”
“The attempted answer that the Brexit deal gives us the best of both worlds is a LIE, because it only allows frictionless trade to GB, but not from GB. Yet, such trade is vital to our supply chain and is what fills our supermarket shelves and for farmers what supplies most of our feedstuff ingredients, fuel and fertilisers.
“Thus the rush to embrace a crippling Irish Sea border is as absurd as it is destructive of our economy.
“The failure to appreciate the long term implications of legally making Northern Ireland, alone within the UK, part of the EU customs territory (Art 15 of Irish Protocol) and subject, alone, to the EU Customs Code rules and tariffs, is a staggering dereliction of duty by business leaders, aided by a ‘look the other way’ approach by most business journalists who have abandoned all objectivity to clamber on board the anti-Brexit bandwagon.
“It will be too late for business to waken up when we are a semi-detached part of our all important UK single market and the free flow of goods is impeded to NI from GB and EU tariffs strangle our ‘imports’.”