Irish sea border: Small businesses still ‘crusading’

The Assembly will vote this week on whether Northern Ireland’s Brexit deal, the Windsor Framework, should continue for another four years.

This effectively places NI within the EU’s single market for goods.

This means that cross-border trade in goods with the Republic of Ireland, an EU country, continues unhindered by Brexit.

Another aspect is that goods coming into the UK from elsewhere are subject to controls and checks — known as the Irish Sea Border.

Michael and Leslie Cairnduff, who run a pet food business in County Down, said the paperwork requirement was “crucifying” small businesses like theirs.

The sea border at Larne Harbor is taking physical shape, with a new border control post under construction.

Before Brexit, cattle from other parts of the UK were inspected here, but the new facility, built to EU specifications, is much larger.

Businesses are dealing with the new checks and their associated bureaucracy. From 2021, when the original version of the frameworkthe Northern Ireland Protocol, began to be implemented.

For many large firms, the implications are now largely digested.

They have, at a cost, hired people to ensure that goods continue to flow through GB.

Major UK supermarkets are still in NI and some are expanding.

The chief executive of a major agri-food firm told the BBC that the maritime border now rarely features in conversations within the business.

However, the maritime frontier remains an unpredictable challenge for small firms with limited resources.

gave The BBC first spoke to Michael and Leslie Cairnduff. 2021 at his pet food business in Newcastle, County Down.

At that point it was almost four months before they could routinely deliver their goods from GB on commercially shipped pallets.

Their supplier adapted and goods were able to flow again.

“We were lucky they helped out,” Mr Kerenduff said. “They have taken all necessary steps.”

However, dealing with maritime border issues still takes a long time.

“We are neither getting the support from the system nor from the politicians that was promised,” he said.

Ms Kerenduff added: “Yesterday I spent two hours working on issues to get a pallet to come in. I shouldn’t be doing that. We should be spending our time helping customers, not doing paperwork for pallets. I.”

were there in the early days of the sea border operation. Some apocalyptic predictions of supply chain collapse.

This did not happen, in part because the treaty as originally agreed never went into effect.

The EU eventually accepted that arrangements for moving food and medicines would be unworkable and that NI would have to adhere to some of the UK’s rules.

If there was no breach of the sea border, then there was no acceleration in the sea border either.

The Windsor framework means that NI has unique dual market access: NI-based manufacturers have better access to the EU single market than GB-based firms, while also retaining full access to the UK market.

It is this arrangement that led former Prime Minister Rishi Shankar to describe NI as having an “incredibly special position” and “the most exciting economic zone in the world”.

The theory is that any international manufacturer that wants to serve both the UK and the EU should set up in NI.

However, the chief executive of Invest NI, NI’s inward investment agency, says that has yet to happen.

Speaking at Stormont in October, Kieran Donoghue said: “There is a relatively low level of awareness of the opportunities offered by dual market access.

“In time, opportunities for foreign direct investment will arise.”

Stuart Anderson from the NI Chamber of Commerce said it was important to remember that the framework was protecting supply chains that cross land borders, particularly in the highly integrated agri-food sector.

He pointed to projections from the Department of the Economy in 2019, which suggested that a no-deal Brexit would mean “a material and permanent disruption” to these supply chains.

“Four years later, we are not there. The framework has brought certainty and stability to allow this free flow of trade,” he said.

“Some of our members who are exporting to the Republic and further into Europe are benefiting.”

Considering the maritime border, he says surveys of his members show that while most now find it manageable, a “significant minority” say the arrangement is “a serious challenge”.

The effects of the maritime border can be difficult to see in Northern Ireland’s economic statistics.

This is most evident in the trade figures, which show business between the two parts of the island at a record high.

This suggests that some products that NI businesses or consumers were sourcing from GB are now coming from Ireland or the wider EU.

Official figures show that NI has recovered significantly better than the UK average from the pandemic.

However, this growth has come almost entirely from the services sector, which is not included in the Windsor Framework.

In contrast, manufacturing output has been flat, with energy costs, skills shortages, and barriers to global trade, which appear to outweigh the benefits of dual market access.

If, as seems likely, the Windsor Framework is voted down by the Assembly, businesses will continue to fight the maritime border.

Later this week we will see that the border is not a set of fixed and stable arrangements.

An update to EU product safety rules, which apply in NI, means some businesses in GB face new rules when selling to Northern Ireland.

The change is a particular challenge for micro-businesses selling through online platforms, with some saying they will no longer be able to transport their goods across the sea border.