Marks & Spencer says it will not supply some Christmas products to Northern Ireland stores because of the risk that fresh food will be impeded under forthcoming arrangements.
"This Christmas, I can tell you already, we're having to make decisions to delist product for Northern Ireland because it's simply not worth the risk of trying to get it through," said the retailer's chairman Archie Norman.
“We’ve already made that decision. We’re waiting to see how serious it’s going to be but if it’s anything like southern Ireland, and at the moment it’s set to be, then it’s going to be very, very serious for customers.”
Supply chain
In a letter to the Brexit minister David Frost, Mr Norman said the current EU customs arrangements were "totally unsuited and were never designed for a modern fresh food supply chain between closely intertwined trading partners".
He said M&S now completed 40,000 pages of customs documents a week to get goods into Ireland, and that would increase to 120,000 when the full rules for Northern Ireland started.
Mr Frost, the architect of the Brexit protocol, and Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, are due to make a statement warning they may in future unilaterally over-ride the protocol requiring onerous checks if a simplified agreement cannot be struck.
The protocol, agreed by British prime minister Boris Johnson in 2019, effectively keeps Northern Ireland in the EU single market for goods and has forced M&S to employ vets to tick boxes and fill out forms.
"It risks being incendiary for the public in Northern Ireland because you can't think of a more visible demonstration of how you're no longer a full part of the United Kingdom than [when] you can't get your favourite Christmas products, you can't buy M&S chicken, free-range eggs, sandwiches," Mr Norman said in an interview with the BBC.
Protocol issues
On Tuesday, Mr Johnson called on the EU to “address the serious issues that have arisen” with Brexit in Northern Ireland, as he prepared to publish a blueprint aimed at re-engineering the protocol.
So far EU leaders have urged him to abide by the protocol or sign up to compromises that would mean a degree of alignment with the EU rulebook for the whole UK.
According to reports, the UK blueprint will include a proposal for an “honesty box” approach whereby it is accepted on trust that goods from big supermarkets or other trusted suppliers destined for Northern Ireland are accepted as remaining in the region.
This is unlikely to be accepted by the EU given its recent protestations that the UK has eroded trust by taking unilateral decisions on the protocol. – Guardian
