Commenting on the announcement of a deal reached between the EU and UK at today’s Summit in London, NI Chamber’s CEO Suzanne Wylie said,
“News that the EU and UK have reached an outline agreement which could remove barriers to trade with our nearest markets is a step in the right direction.
“With an escalation in geo-political uncertainty and the cost of doing business, we want to see a deal that delivers meaningful change to drive growth and address common challenges like food security, energy, and healthcare.
Whether its removing frictions on the flow of goods that ease GB-NI trade or making progress in areas that support cross-border services, there are many areas that could be beneficial for Northern Ireland.”
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“It is welcome that the reset includes a pathway to an agrifood (SPS) deal and the linking emissions trading schemes . However, local businesses will take time to analyse the detail as and when it emerges. NI Chamber has been calling on the UK government to reach an SPS agreement that is ambitious enough to substantially reduce bureaucracy for all operators in our agrifood supply chain. We have also been calling for ETS linkage to avoid the risk of further potential barriers to trade with the EU or Great Britain on the road to decarbonisation.
But the agreement announced today will not solve all the challenges our members face. We would like to see greater aspiration to tackle regulatory divergence more broadly, and to reduce the customs burden under the Windsor Framework.”
“We acknowledge that this is the beginning of a process, we welcome the direction of travel but there is much to do to and a need to move at pace. We look forward to engaging with policymakers to ensure that Northern Ireland's businesses and households stand to benefit from the outworkings of today’s announcement.”
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