Britain | Still knotty

Is the Windsor framework in Northern Ireland working?

The new rules soften the Irish Sea border, but do not make it disappear

Image: Alamy
|Belfast and Larne

The Windsor framework was agreed on in February, but its first practical test came at the start of this month. The deal—negotiated by Rishi Sunak, the British prime minister, and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president—set up green and red lanes for goods passing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Green lanes are for goods that will stay in the province, and impose only minimal customs checks on trusted traders. Red lanes, for goods that might cross the land border with Ireland (and so enter the EU), involve more rigorous inspections.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Still knotty”

From the October 28th 2023 edition

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