Rishi Sunak’s Brexit Deal Will Not Fix Northern Ireland Trade, Supermarkets Warn

Retailers and food suppliers, including the meat and dairy trade associations and Marks & Spencer, have ruled out fully using the fast-track “green lane” customs system when it comes into force in October because of the complexity and cost involved, The Telegraph reported.

The system – at the heart of the Windsor Framework agreed earlier this year by the Prime Minister and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen – allows goods to cross the Irish Sea with no physical checks and minimal paperwork if labelled as “not for EU”.

However, insiders said that this requires a change in the packaging of thousands of items, meaning alterations to production lines. As a result, many products will not be ready in time for October, when the rules come in for meat and dairy.

Although changes are likely to be made to the packaging of more products in the future, in some cases the expense involved means this will not happen at all.

Goods without a label will have to remain in the “red lane”, meaning they will be subjected to full customs checks.

Andrew Opie, food director at the British Retail Consortium, said: “While retailers are working hard to be fully compliant by October, we are very concerned that unless the Government quickly resolves issues such as labelling and other controls on products moving to Northern Ireland, supermarkets will not be able to maximise their use of the green lane, creating inevitable disruption to their supply chains.”

Supermarkets have still not seen a full list of items that could pass through the ‘green’ and ‘red’ lanes, according to industry sources.

A source at one of Britain’s four biggest supermarkets said: “Most retailers are probably going to have to use the red lane for some products to start with simply because of the labelling requirements, we don’t know what they are in detail yet.”

It raises fresh questions over whether Mr. Sunak’s Windsor Framework deal was as successful as initially claimed. Announcing the agreement earlier this year, the Prime Minister said it “removed any sense of a border in the Irish Sea”.

However, supermarket and food bosses have become increasingly concerned over what the split system will look like when it is phased in.

An M&S spokesman said: “The Windsor Framework is an important step forward for Northern Ireland, but the detail within it – particularly labelling requirements – brings cost and complexity that will take time to implement fully.”

Nick Allen, chief executive of the British Meat Processors Association, said: “It may not only be the retailers that start insisting on going through the red channel, it could be we could see this in the restaurant sector as well.

“You could argue that some of the food service companies, McDonald’s, or whoever, might say ‘we don’t want the restriction of putting something into Northern Ireland and not being able to go south’.”

Retail insiders suggested that companies which sold both in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland would face even more costs following the change, as they would have to produce both labelled and unlabelled packages.

One source suggested this could require them to use different supply chains for the two different lanes.

Another industry insider said there was further complexity when it came to products that had been imported from the rest of the world before being sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, which risked being locked out from the green lane.

There has also been confusion over the full extent of labelling requirements for those products remaining in Northern Ireland.

As The Telegraph revealed in May, plans under discussion included requiring supermarkets to place labels denoting that food could not be sent to the EU on not only the individual packs of food, but also on cases carrying products and on supermarket shelves.

A spokesman for Dairy UK said: “The Green Lane system should simplify the administrative processes required to send goods from GB to Northern Ireland.

“However, they do come with some challenges, principally in labelling on packaging.

“There are still some outstanding issues that have yet to be resolved in this area which is creating some uncertainty. In light of this, some operators may choose to continue with Red Lane arrangements which they are now familiar with.”

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), said: “The Windsor Framework solves the practical issues of old Protocol and safeguards Northern Ireland’s place in our Union.

“We are engaging extensively with businesses in Northern Ireland to help them prepare, including publishing detailed guidance and offering financial support.”