Ulster Unionist Councillor, Alderman Mark Cosgrove, who is a Director in an international road transport company, has called for the UK Government to activate safeguarding measures for a period of at least one year under Article 16 of the Protocol to help protect businesses in Northern Ireland from its worst excesses.

Alderman Cosgrove said:

“Forget about the spin from multiple sources. There is in effect a customs and regulatory border in the Irish Sea for all business-to-business consignments. Anyone who says otherwise has lost touch with reality. Business to consumer parcels have been given a 6-month derogation, as have supermarket suppliers, but goodness knows what the position will be after that. However, all normal GB/NI freight will be subject to;

• The need to register as a trusted trader on the new TSS (Trader Support Service) system;
• Get a European “XI” EORI (Economic Operators Registration and Identification) number in addition to your GB one.

“Each consignment will require:

• An ENS (safety and security declaration);
• 2 x Movement reference numbers.

“The vehicle they are travelling on will require a GVMS (Goods Vehicle Movement Service) reference number before they are allowed on the ferry in Great Britain. Following receipt of the GVMS manifest, Border Force will determine which vehicles have to report to the border control posts that have been built in Larne, Belfast and Warrenpoint.

“Some politicians are spinning that we have still got ‘frictionless trade between GB and NI’. As someone who manages a large freight business I can state categorically that the reality is massively different. We are separated from the rest of the UK because we were deemed expendable by the DUP`s erstwhile allies in the ERG (European Research Group) and their English nationalist Tory cousins.

“We are being patronised that there are no controls on NI/GB movements as though we should be grateful we can trade within our own country without customs. It’s constitutionally offensive. I note that the Secretary of State, Brandon Lewis MP, has stated that there is no ‘Irish Sea Border’. I`d like to ask him and his Conservative Party colleagues, do they not understand what they have signed up to? It was clear that`s what happened when they introduced the Internal Market Bill last year.  I’d love to see the ERG and Boris do the same for Yorkshire to Cornwall trade. This is a massive breach of the Belfast Agreement which says that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland can only change with the people of Northern Ireland’s consent.

“I voted for and campaigned to remain during the European referendum of 2016 as I had serious concerns about the only Union that really matters which is that of the United Kingdom. Many people I know voted to leave, but there’s no way the majority would have done so had they known that the price of Brexit was economic separation between Great Britain and Northern Ireland with border control posts established in Northern Ireland to administer EU Single Market and Customs rules.

“When you are on the western peninsula of Europe with an underdeveloped private sector, all markets are important, but by far our biggest trading route is between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. No amount of spin can ignore these facts that there is a regulatory border down the Irish Sea separating us from Great Britain. Given that these barriers to trade were imposed on us by the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed between the UK Government and the EU, it`s incumbent on the UK Government to activate the appropriate safeguarding measures under Article 16 of the Protocol to protect businesses from the turbulence of obstacles being erected on our biggest trading route."