Ulster Unionist leader, Steve Aiken OBE MLA, has stated that all parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly should be working together to lobby for safeguards to be put in place for at least a year to help Northern Ireland work its way through the worst effects of the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Trade and Co-operation Agreement between the UK Government and the EU.

Mr Aiken said:

“Given the serious impediments to Northern Ireland`s economy created by the imposition of the Protocol on Northern Ireland, we asked the Assembly to back our amendment calling for the UK Government to recognise the very severe implications of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and activate safeguard measures under Article 16 of the Protocol for Ireland/Northern Ireland for a period of at least one year. The reasons for this are becoming abundantly and overwhelmingly clearer day by day.

“Regrettably, Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance voted against this proposal. Instead they supported a motion calling for the implementation of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland without any thought being given to providing safeguarding measures for our local economy.

“Their position is inexplicable given their previous claims that they want to do the best for the people of Northern Ireland and protect the Belfast Agreement. The Belfast Agreement has been breached by the Protocol and three parties – Sinn Fein, SDLP and Alliance - are fully supportive of this course of action. They are ignoring the reality of the impact of what has been agreed between the United Kingdom Government and the EU.

“There are many flaws in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement, not least in that its provisions were to have ameliorated the worst aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Whereas the threat of tariffs has been removed for now, the non-tariff barriers are of such a degree that they will distort business, agriculture, trade, security and not least, how democratic accountability is provided for the people of Northern Ireland.

“Now is a time when all parties should be working together to lobby both the UK Government and the EU to put safeguards in place to protect Northern Ireland and its people from those implications. Instead, Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Alliance continue to stick their heads in the sand and call for the full imposition of the damaging Protocol. Only they can explain their gung-ho attitude to the Protocol.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Ulster Unionist Party Amendment to motion:

‘That this Assembly takes note of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union’

At end insert:

; and calls on the United Kingdom Government, in view of the very serious impediments to the Northern Ireland economy being created by the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, to apply safeguard measures as laid out in Article 16 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland for a period of at least one year.

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Article 16 of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland states:

1. If the application of this Protocol leads to serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade, the Union or the United Kingdom may unilaterally take appropriate safeguard measures. Such safeguard measures shall be restricted with regard to their scope and duration to what is strictly necessary in order to remedy the situation. Priority shall be given to such measures as will least disturb the functioning of this Protocol.

2. If a safeguard measure taken by the Union or the United Kingdom, as the case may be, in accordance with paragraph 1 creates an imbalance between the rights and obligations under this Protocol, the Union or the United Kingdom, as the case may be, may take such proportionate rebalancing measures as are strictly necessary to remedy the imbalance. Priority shall be given to such measures as will least disturb the functioning of this Protocol.

3. Safeguard and rebalancing measures taken in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be governed by the procedures set out in Annex 7 to this Protocol