The TUV warmly welcomes the press release issued today by former Ulster Unionist MLA and Senior Economist Ulster University Business School, Dr Esmond Birnie.
Dr Birnie asks whether Mutual Enforcement is an idea whose time has come, suggesting that classical objections to it – namely that it is rather novel and involves the EU contracting out the enforcement of its border – are both equally true of the Windsor Framework.
What is more, Dir Birnie points out, Mutual Enforcement has some very considerable advantages:
‘It would remove NI from a general liability to EU laws. Even with the further reforms of the position promised in the recent Safeguarding the Union Agreement we can see there are many anomalies – NI based potato crisp manufacturers will be unable to use certain additives, NI dentists will be unable to use certain types of fillings etc.”
“Mutual Enforcement avoids having to have a border infrastructure at either the Irish Sea border or the NI-RoI land border.
“Even given the Safeguarding the Union provisions, the Windsor Framework implies that about £2bn of goods coming into NI from GB for further processing (mostly inputs to manufacturing) will have to pass through the Red Lane because the EU deems those items as being “at risk” in terms of potential entry into the Single Market (even though only a small percentage of such goods will eventually be sold in the RoI or the rest of the EU). Mutual Enforcement removes the need for a Red Lane. Notwithstanding the much boosted alleged advantages of “dual market access” under the existing arrangements there are likely to be cases were the Windsor Framework renders NI based businesses less competitive than their GB based counterparts and competitors and as a result jobs will be lost.
“Mutual Enforcement would avoid the very large level of annual government spending which has been required to both enforce and mitigate the Protocol/Windsor Framework. Notably, the spending on the Trader Support Service but all the various ways in which the UK government has been provided funding to try to ease the paperwork and make digital adjustments associated with the Windsor Framework. This is a “hidden cost” of the status quo but it is not less real for that.’
Dr Birnie also poses an important question that must be linked to the curious failure of the DUP to push for Mutual Enforcement when offered assistance in this regard in 2023, see here
‘It is harder to explain why the UK government tended to adopt the weak position of never seriously bargaining for Mutual Enforcement. Labour has indicated that post-Election if they are the Government they wish to re-base the UK-EU trading relationship. They want a better deal for UK banks and other businesses. If there are general UK-EU trade talks the EU will, of course, be looking for its pound of flesh (more fishing rights?) but in this general mix of things perhaps the NI aspects could also be re-considered.’
Commenting on Dr Birnie statement, Dr Dan Boucher TUV Reform Candidate for Belfast South and Mid Down said:
‘“We very much welcome Dr Birnie’s intervention today.
“It is great to see someone of his standing and experience raising the importance of Mutual Enforcement.
“One of its chief benefits is that it provides a way of protecting the integrity of the EU single market that does not involve disenfranchising the people of Northern Ireland in 300 areas of law.
“Until 1 January 2021, UK citizens in Northern Ireland were afforded the same electoral rights as people everywhere else in the UK in the sense that we all had the right to stand for election to make all the laws to which we are subject.
“On 1 January that year, however, the people of Northern had foisted on them a second class citizenship meaning that we can no longer stand for election to make the laws we are subject in some 300 different areas, the biggest disenfranchisement operation of modern times.
“The flow of history over the last 200 years has always been in one direction – that of extending the vote, enfranchising more people.
“Northern Ireland is the first jurisdiction in the world to have had the vote for a 100 years only for it to be removed in relation to 300 areas of law.
“This is quite extraordinary.
“Mutual Enforcement would bring that to an end and re-enfranchise the people of Northern Ireland.
“The EU might say it prefers having a border in the Irish Sea but in a context where there are two ways of managing the border one of which involves disenfranchising 1.9 million people, the other which does not involve disenfranchising anyone, the question about which ‘solution’ to choose becomes a no-brainer for anyone who is a democrat.”