Theresa May’s former Brexit advisor @RaoulRuparel has some ideas on how to tackle the Irish Sea border agrifood (SPS) issues. It’s these which have caused most of the practical problems politico.eu/article/brexit…
To recap: NI is still in EU single market for goods. GB is not. This means food products GB-NI face a range of onerous EU certifications & checks. These processes are not yet fully implemented due to grace periods & govt support.
Two broad solutions have thus far been suggested: ‘Swiss’ or ‘New Zealand’. Raoul says neither of these is really a runner.
Swiss means UK follows EU SPS rules in perpetuity. Lord Frost says that’s unthinkable for UK. NZ means reduced frequency of checks but doesn’t eliminate the admin. NZ-EU trade (wholesale) is v different to GB-NI trade (retail).
So Raoul has a whole-of-UK idea which is basically a non-regression/ managed divergence SPS deal along the lines of what’s in the TCA for other stuff. In practice it’s a sovereignty-friendly Swiss-ish deal.
Alternatively he suggests an NI-only plan which is based around the ‘dead end host’ stuff the supermarkets have been pushing ie. guaranteeing food entering NI is going no further. This would also draw on the ‘at risk’ concept currently in place for customs.
As the piece explains both these ideas are probably a stretch for the EU but are at least worth consideration.
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