All-Ireland trade booms while the UK and EU squabble over sausages

Intra-Irish trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is significantly above historical trends whilst cross Irish Sea trade continues to encounter significant friction, with over 500 customs checks a day being carried out on the transfer of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

A UK government source, speaking to The Times newspaper, admitted that trade patterns have “shifted” since January 1 as the impact of the economic border in the Irish Sea has begun to be felt.

While the value of British exports to Ireland this year has been 39 per cent lower than last year, and 44 per cent lower than in 2018, trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic is “significantly up” and “trending far above historic levels”, according to the source.

Exports to Northern Ireland from the Republic are 40 per cent above the equivalent period in 2020, and 54 per cent above the same period in 2018.

Trade in the opposite direction, from Northern Ireland to the Republic, is 61 per cent above 2020 levels and has more than doubled (111 per cent up) since 2018.

The figures suggest that Northern Ireland is benefiting from having the “best of both worlds”, with unique access to both the British and EU markets, by being simultaneously part of both the UK customs union and the EU’s Single Market but without a hard border to the south.

The trade figures also show the impact of the Northern Ireland protocol, which has resulted in the EU checking all food passing between Britain and Northern Ireland..

Up to May 23, the latest period for which figures are available, there had been 41,807 documentary checks at the effective border in the Irish Sea, 36,702 ID checks, and 2,831 physical checks on goods moving between Britain and Northern Ireland.

That is a total of more than 81,000 checks in total in 123 days, an average of more than 560 per day.

Decisions are being made on about 340 entry documents per day, which equates to one in five of all EU border checks across the whole of Europe.

Earlier this month the UK asked for a three-month extension to the grace period on chilled meat preparations, and reports from both London and Brussels suggest that a choreographed deal to reduce tensions between both parties is close to being finalised.

In the absence of an agreement, from July 1 all sausages moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will be examined by EU officials at all points of entry — Belfast, Larne, Warrenpoint and Foyle.

Regardless, some chilled meat preparations, such as sausages, that had been imported from Britain are now being sourced on the island of Ireland instead.

James Doherty, a director and sixth generation of a family-owned meat business in Derry, agreed that it had benefited from the additional checks being imposed on British suppliers.

He said Sainsbury’s was among the supermarkets to have increased the range of local products it bought from Doherty’s since February, when new customers documentation began to be required for chilled meats passing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

“Some of them have looked towards NI suppliers for things like their own-label products that would have been manufactured in Britain. That’s all good for the local economy,”

I know that some of the supermarkets here have had difficulty bringing in produce from Britain.

We have been able to increase our range with some of the supermarkets, which have given us some extra shelf space they wouldn’t have taken before.”

Doherty’s firm supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Spar.

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