This is not just a border solution… This is an M&S border solution
M&S proclaims all border controls in the Irish Sea should end and modern technical processes replace them
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2022
In a scene-stealing intervention on the Northern Ireland Protocol negotiations Marks & Spencer has called for all checks and certifications on the entry of British supermarket goods to Northern Irish outlets to be replaced by a technology-based solution.
In a letter to Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, M&S Food managing director, Stuart Machin, stated frictionless trade could be established by employing traceability technology to “clearly show product from GB that moves to Northern Ireland stays in Northern Ireland”. He went on, “By using this technology, you should be able to remove certification requirements.”
The M&S proposals go far further than the EU’s offer of trying to reduce the form-filling by 50% which was, in any event, predicated on several conditions such as full supply chain traceability and comprehensive product data that it was less willing to alert the media to.
The EU conditions typically represented a hollow concession on their previous over-reactions to a non-existent problem.
“This [solution] would negate the need for regular checks because [the EU] could just look at our systems, audit selected loads, and see for themselves when their product left the GB distribution centre and when it arrived in our stores in Northern Ireland,” said Alec Brown, M&S head of public and regional affairs.
“Over time through their audits, they could see that the goods were only staying in NI. Hopefully that would give them the confidence that goods weren’t going into a single market and remove the need for certificates and checks on the border.”
Alec Brown, M&S head of public and regional affairs
Interestingly Marks & Spencer and the co-signatories have gone even further, saying that with “similar technology and common sense”, it would be possible to make any border frictionless with no detriment to customs controls or food safety. Adding, “This could be achieved by a Facilitated Movement Scheme which would be based on having a framework where only approved and accredited firms could move from ‘every product checked and 100% accuracy’ to a risk-based approach underpinned by statutory enforcement, an audit scheme with requests for certification and physical checks based on risk and specific intelligence, and penalties for failure.”
This is probably a nod to its previous decision to close 11 food outlets in France due to the complication of supplying its stores there. Such a change if introduced between the UK and France would allow it to consider reopening those food stores again.
M&S serves all of the island of Ireland and deserves to be listened to
Marks & Spencer has 21 stores across Northern Ireland with outlets in all six counties, employing over 3,000 employees and serving 650,000 customers weekly. But it’s not as if Marks & Spencer has no interest itself in goods going to the Republic of Ireland – it actually has 17 stores there, including three in Dublin, employs over 2,300 staff and calls upon 26 Irish suppliers. With an Irish turnover of €521m Euros it is ranked at 176th in the ‘Irish Times Top 1000 companies’ – ahead of Aer Lingus and Heineken Ireland.
To service its Irish stores, lorries journeying to those outlets will travel only with goods that meet the EU’s single market regulations. The idea there would be a problem of ‘leakage’ of M&S goods from Northern Ireland into the Republic (which will all meet the same standards anyway), putting the Single Market at risk is not just a confected nonsense – it is an EU confected nonsense.
The idea that M&S will have different standards for its chicken (cooked or uncooked) or its Lamb Tikka ready-made meals, or its sumptuous trifles, is to wholly – and intentionally – misrepresent the retail trade.
Observations
The solutions to the question of how to manage the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic have always existed but were effectively vetoed by the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, and EU representative, Michel Barnier – intentionally weaponising the issue to gain leverage in the Brexit negotiations.
This approach was despicable and should have been called out by, first, Theresa May, and then Boris Johnston, for the intimidation and effrontery to Northern Ireland’s legal and constitutional rights that it was. The move was and remains in conflict with the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and has actually elevated tensions rather than calmed them.
The joint EU/Irish position was never about maintaining the peace but an attempt to pressurise the UK to accept the Single Market’s ever-changing standards (now allowing animal remains to be used as farm feed for livestock) so that the UK could not in future diverge to become more competitive.
What M&S has done is show just how prejudicial and mendacious the position of both the Republic and the EU has been. There are solutions to the border issue, they can be settled like adults without nursing a grievance, they require technology but they do not need to have infrastructure at the border itself.
With taxes, currency, alcohol, tobacco and fuel duties all being different – and catered for already without hard infrastructure – the proposal from M&S should be seen as an opportunity to solve the issues amicably. Pull the border out of the Irish sea and establish it virtually where it always was – the same place where the EU was willing to establish it when it sought to invoke Article 16 without warning and the required consultation over the supply of Covid vaccines.
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[ Sources: Marks & Spencer | The Grocer | Irish Times | Facts4EU Irish sources ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Wednesday, 19 January, 2022
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