Sir Archie Norman warns that post-Brexit trading arrangements are ‘very threatening’ to the M&S business on the island of Ireland. (This is about TCA as well as NIP). Wants an agrifood agreement.
https://twitter.com/BBCRichardM/status/1417714468004536322
Speaking to @BBCr4today Sir Archie says they have already taken the decision to delist some Christmas products from NI stores. He didn’t give a full throated denial that M&S could ultimately pull out of Ireland.
M&S currently employing 5 vets at its Motherwell depot to process Export Health Certs for Irish loads. This will need to rise to 13 vets when supermarkets in NI face EHC requirements in October.
They have cut about 20% of their food range in Irish stores, including more than halving their sandwich range.
On his preferred solution: ‘By far the easiest solution would be to agree a time limited veterinary/food standards agreement. I understand why the Government is not favourably disposed to this solution, but it is by far the best way of delivering a smooth trade flow.’
Aside from this: ‘We believe a combination of a facilitated movement scheme combined with a serious long-term commitment to digitisation and a series of measures designed to deliver “common sense” solutions to compliance could make a very substantial difference.’
FWIW it’s worth I was speaking to a small biz yesterday which has been able to adapt to the Protocol but with two major asks: simplify the paperwork & properly digitise the processes as they time-consuming and clunky at present; improve the quality of official advice.
Short version of Ireland’s Europe Minister on Today: ‘GB choose to leave the single market - what did you expect? There’s an SPS deal on the table if the UK wants it.’
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