Following confirmation today that the EU and UK have reached an agreement in principle to resolve issues over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that the deal is “extremely important for Irish farming”.
The new Windsor Framework was announced today (Monday, February 27) by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
It will – assuming it is accepted by lawmakers in the UK and Northern Ireland specifically – replace the Northern Ireland Protocol.
IFA president Tim Cullinan welcomed the development, saying that the new framework would facilitate trade between the EU, the UK and Northern Ireland.
Cullinan said: “While we await the full details of any new arrangements, it is much better to have a negotiated outcome rather than having to resort to unilateral measures.”
He added: “There is already significant co-operation between the farming sectors north and south on the island.
“Approximately one-third of our food exports still go to the UK, so having rules-based trade that preserves the integrity of the Single Market is extremely important for Irish farming,” The IFA president commented.
The commission said that the new arrangements will be “underpinned by robust safeguards to ensure the integrity of the EU’s Single Market, to which Northern Ireland has a unique access”.
The new agreement sets in stone a previously discussed ‘green lane’ and ‘red lane’ system, wherein goods from the island of Britain destined for Northern Ireland will be treated differently than goods from Britain that will be moving south of the border into the Republic of Ireland (or any part of the EU).
Under this approach, goods staying in the UK would be transported via the green lane with minimal paperwork, checks and duties.
Goods going to the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the EU, via the red lane, would be subject to full checks and controls and full customs procedures in order to protect the EU Single Market.
As part of the arrangements announced today, the UK government said it will no longer proceed with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which, if passed, would have disapplied some parts of the old protocol.
The European Commission has welcomed this, and said that its legal proceedings against the UK – triggered by the protocol bill – will be discontinued once the new arrangements are in place.