Analysis by TUV leader Jim Allister KC MLA:-
It is clear the substance of yesterday’s deal does not live up to the overselling spin which accompanied it.
The realities are these:-
Northern Ireland, a proclaimed part of the United Kingdom, remains wholly within a foreign Single Market for goods subject to the vast plethora of EU laws that control it and all that overseen by a foreign court, the ECJ. In its own commentary on the deal the EU was emphatic, the ECJ remains “the sole and ultimate arbiter of EU law.” So, the hundreds of EU laws applied to NI by Art 5(4) and Annex 2 of the Protocol remain and none of them are subject to local control or variation – the much vaunted ‘Stormont Brake’ has no application to these existing imposed laws. NI continues as a colonial rule taker subject to the supremacy of a foreign court.
Being trapped in perpetuity in the EU’s Single Market for goods, while GB’s market rules can and will diverge, increasing detachment from the U.K. and increasing attachment to the Republic of Ireland is inevitable. Hence, for any Unionist the folly of embracing membership of the EU’s single market. It is not a matter of economic advantage but of constitutional detriment.
Northern Ireland remains wholly within the orbit and control of the EU’s Customs Code. The effect is that EU territory starts at our sea border where the border customs infrastructure will be strengthened and food goods coming from GB for NI consumption only can still be checked. The EU has boasted, “There is no dual regulatory regime. While UK public health standards will apply to goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, EU requirements for animal health and plant health remain fully in place..”
Even for goods staying in Northern Ireland there will still be customs paperwork with 21 data elements normally required for a standard customs declaration, as required by the EU Customs Code to mark the passage from external territory to EU territory, with the load manifest of every lorry declared to a foreign power, the EU! So much for the promised ‘equal footing‘ of Article 6 of the Acts of Union.
Moreover to transfer goods to NI they must come via a ‘trusted trader’. The very fact you must be in a trusted trader scheme to trade within your own country is both obnoxious and confirmation in itself, and with the above identified impositions, that Art 6 of the Acts of Union remain in suspension.
So, clearly, despite the PM’s contrary assertion, there will still be a customs border in the Irish Sea setting Northern Ireland apart in an all-Ireland/EU orbit.
Expensive labelling requirements for all goods coming into Northern Ireland, will add expense and disincentives for suppliers.
The boasted reform allowing UK excise changes on alcohol, of course, applies only to hospitality sales and not to off sales or supermarkets where EU laws take precedence. The EU has decreed, “The UK will not be able to apply any duty rate below the EU minima.” And, it’s published commentary says, “Each solution in the areas of VAT and excise come with conditions and safeguards …. Furthermore, the solutions cannot negatively affect the EU Single Market…”
The PM has sought to make much of the so called ‘Stormont Brake’. It applies only to future changes in applicable EU law, does not provide a veto to MLAs, but only to the UK government if a high threshold is said by them to be met, causing one commentator to say. “Far from unionists having their foot on the brake, they would be in the back seat with permission to ask the driver to brake.”
So, all in all, for anyone whose compass is set by sovereignty considerations and whose goal is the strengthening, not weakening, of the Union with GB, this is a deal which falls far short. The EU graciously allowing us to transport our pets comes no where close to the UK recovering sovereignty over this part of the United Kingdom.
As for it being enough to cause Unionists to give up its Stormont leverage and settle for this deal, which comes with the added packaging of a Sinn Fein First Minister, then, no thanks!