Statement by TUV Dr Dan Boucher, TUV/ Reform UK PPC Belfast South and Mid Down:
“Dual market access suggests that Northern Ireland is in a privileged position in that it is part of the UK Internal Market for goods, thus having access to the rest of the UK, while also enjoying access to the EU Single Market, as if it was part of the EU as well.
“The essence of ‘market access’ in this sense is the thought that Northern Ireland can access both markets without encountering a customs or an international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) border, otherwise we would have to be honest and say that Northern Ireland actually enjoys multi-market access in that we can access any market in the world so long as we are prepared to navigate the relevant customs and SPS border protecting the other country, be it the USA, Japan, South Africa or where-ever.
That creates a problem for the notion of dual market access because while Northern Ireland can access the Republic of Ireland without having to negotiate a customs or SPS border, and thus enjoys market access to the Republic, it does not enjoy access to the rest of the UK without having to negotiate a customs and SPS border.
“To cross the Irish Sea border on the Green Lane you must be an approved trusted trader, have an export number, fill in 100% of the requisite customs and SPS forms, and be subject to 100% paperwork checks and between 10 and 5% identity checks.
“To cross the border on the Red Lane you again must have an export number, be subject to longer customs and SPS forms, 100% of which must be checked and also be subject to higher numbers of identity checks and indeed physical checks.
“All these demands increase complexity and costs that can make the difference between whether it is worth pursuing an economic venture or not. They are demands that did not exist before 1 January 2021, demands that do not exist in moving goods within the rest of the UK or within any other internal market.
“In this context what Northern Ireland actually enjoys is either single market access, if we mean by this access to a market without a trade/SPS border, or multi-market access, if we mean that we can sell goods to many different markets while negotiating trade/SPS borders. What we do not have is dual market access: access to both the Republic and the rest of the UK without having to navigate an international customs and SPS border.
“The absurd nature of the claim that we enjoy dual market access – see today’s SDLP motion – is brought home with particular clarity when we recognise that anyone seeking to move goods within the UK from GB to NI on the Red Lane will face greater obstruction than someone seeking to import goods into GB from France, a foreign country, because the UK international demands are less than those imposed by the EU within the UK.
“This is very bad for the Northern Ireland economy (excluding the service sector which is not affected by the Irish Sea border) because so much of our economic life depends on the fact that we were, until 1 January 2021, a fully integrated part of the UK economy.
“It is also very bad news for Northern Ireland because the price of having access to a single market in which you are not located, in return for being denied access to your own single market, is the mass disenfranchisement of the people of Northern Ireland in relation to the laws to which we are subject governing much of our economic and social life in some 300 different areas.
“Dual market access in the way advanced by those championing the motion is a myth.
The only way forward if we are to champion the best interests of Northern Ireland politically and economically is the introduction of Mutual Enforcement which provides a way of managing the border that requires neither a hard border down the Irish Sea nor across the island of Ireland. It provides us unfettered access to our main market, re-enfranchises us and provides a basis for seeking good access to the Republic of Ireland.”