Britain | Forms, frustration and fans

The Northern Ireland protocol enrages some businesses, pleases others

Most firms in the province want it amended, not ditched

LISBURN, CO.ANTRIM: Peter Summerton, MD of McCulla Refrigerated Transport checks over paperwork from Dutch driver Martel Tendam who arrived from Europe. Photo/Paul McErlane?It?s absolutely criminal what has been allowed to happen between these two islands that have traded with each other for so long,? says Peter Summerton, managing director of McCulla Refrigerated Transport, one of Northern Ireland?s biggest frozen and chilled food specialist haulage firms. Under the Northern Ireland protocol, which was designed to obviate the need for infrastructure on the Irish border, all goods passing from GB to NI are subject to the EU customs code with sanitary and phyto sanitary (SPS) checks applied to 100% of food entering the region. Such is the dizzying array of new data that suppliers need to provide for transport across the Irish Sea that McCulla has devised its own ?triage? crib sheet with a team of six new staff taking customers through a check list of 39 data fields to ensure flow of goods across the Irish Sea. Another 14 staff have been taken on to help with customs.© Guardian / eyevineContact eyevine for more information about using this image:T: +44 (0) 20 8709 8709E: info@eyevine.comhttp://www.eyevine.com
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|Belfast

When asked what he thinks of the British government’s new legislation to tear up much of the Northern Ireland protocol, Dermot Johnson struggles to think of printable words. “Unbelievable,” he eventually says. “Populist rubbish.”

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Forms, frustration and fans ”

Britain June 18th 2022

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