NI families need extension to the grace period
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has called for the Northern Ireland grace period to be extended, to allow businesses more time to adapt to new Irish Sea border processes.
The EU’s usual rules on customs and product standards are not yet being fully enforced at NI ports. The first of the grace periods agreed by the UK and EU is set to expire at the end of March.
Not teething problems
NI Secretary Brandon Lewis previously said he did not expect any extension, but speaking on Tuesday in the House of Commons, Mr Gove said there were “serious problems” with the NI Protocol that needed to be addressed.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously played down concerns about the protocol and described them as ‘teething problems.’
“We do need to make sure grace periods are extended so that supermarkets can continue to provide consumers with goods they need,” Gove said.
The minister said he would write to the EU with “specific proposals”, and confirmed a meeting would take place with Stormont’s first and deputy first ministers, Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill, on Wednesday along his with EU counterpart European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic.
Grace periods
The grace period for food means that some businesses, particularly major retailers, do not need to comply with all the EU’s usual certification requirements when importing products from the rest of the UK.
Responding to Michael Gove’s comments that the grace periods in Northern Ireland should be extended, Aodhán Connolly, Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said:
“Michael Gove is absolutely right – we do need an extension to the grace period to ensure that hard-pressed NI families are not affected by further disruption in the availability of goods. In the longer term, we need a workable solution that allows NI retailers to continue to give households the choice and affordability they need. This requires pragmatic controls which satisfy the EU’s concerns, recognise the deeply integrated GB-NI supply chains, and can be introduced in a workable manner over a sensible time frame.”
