Statement by TUV chairman Cusher Councillor Keith Ratcliffe:
“The laughable attempt by the DUP’s David Brooks to deny the existence of Sea Border even in the face of a Ministerial answer which makes it clear that Great Britain remains a “Third Country” in trading terms and there are “no plans” to dismantle border posts is an insult to the intelligence of Unionists.
“You cannot wish the Sea Border away simply by renaming the Green Lane and denying the existence of border posts which are remaining in place. Indeed, just this week the Belfast Telegraph reported on the scale of what is being constructed.
“The following are indisputable facts:
* NI remains wholly under the EU Customs Code which decrees GB a third/foreign country in terms of trade.
* NI continues to be treated as EU territory.
* Customs posts continue to be built at our ports to checks goods coming from GB, including all raw materials for Northern Ireland manufacturing and processing.
* EU laws by the hundred continue to apply unabated in Northern Ireland while ECJ oversight is untouched, with ministers required by law to implement these foreign laws we don’t make and can’t change.
* To use the ‘green lane’ you still must belong to a Trusted Trader Scheme to trade in your own country and complete paperwork.
* Articles 6 of the Act(s) of Union remains in suspension.
* Not one word of the Protocol has changed nor has any EU law been disapplied.
“There is a duty to basic truth to acknowledge these realities. If David Brooks is going to bury his head in the sand when it comes to these matters one can have little confidence that he will perform a useful role as vice chair of the Democratic Scrutiny Committee at Stormont.”