The Belfast Telegraph, June 28
The United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union created both political and commercial challenges to the movement of goods. With increasing division and toxicity in the political arena, it has become quite difficult for the logistics sector to comment on challenges without becoming drawn into the political wrangle.
The protocol, born out of the rushed and ill-considered negotiations, was deemed as the solution to the Brexit challenge posed by the Irish land border, however the attempt to crudely apply the Official Controls and Regulations to the very different mature regional supply chains between Great Britain and Northern Ireland was always set to fail.
Hauliers warned that the frequency, timing and value of movements simply meant that the application of EU import rules could not be applied in the context of the regional supply chain without causing diversions to trade routes and inevitable cost increases.
The Windsor Framework was sold to business as having “removed any sense of a border in the Irish Sea” and made “moving goods from Birmingham to Belfast as the same as moving goods from Birmingham to the Isle of Wight”. These political spin lines mirror the 2021 claims that there was “no border in the Irish Sea”.
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