LONDON, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- The post-Brexit trade deal agreed by Britain and the European Union (EU) last month can be seen to bring both challenges and potential opportunities for Northern Ireland (NI), David Phinnemore, professor of European politics at Queen's University Belfast, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The fact that there was a deal which allows for zero tariffs, zero quota movement of goods, was welcomed in Northern Ireland, but did not remove frictions that were not clarified in the deal.
"The deal is obviously much thinner than we thought it was going to be a year ago, it probably does not live up to the expectations that the UK and the EU had when they concluded the withdrawal agreement," said Phinnemore.
He said he believes the deal can help keep the goods flowing, while "it falls well short on a lot of other area."
Due to the post-Brexit trade deal, food products from Britain to the EU will have to enter through new border control posts at Northern Ireland's ports -- as stated in the Northern Ireland protocol signed in 2019.
Northern Ireland will continue to apply EU customs rules at its ports, to allow goods to flow into the Republic of Ireland and the rest of the EU. This is known as the Irish sea border, which is a new trade border between Northern Ireland and other parts of Britain.
"The agreement does not provide for regulatory alignment between the UK and the EU in the same areas where Northern Ireland is aligned with the EU," Phinnemore said.
"Therefore the frictions which that causes in terms of the movement of goods are going to be there for the foreseeable future. So yeah, the deal helps. But as I think businesses certainly have been crying out from Northern Ireland, you need far more than simply zero tariffs, zero quota deal between the UK and the EU, if you are to minimize the disruption on particularly the goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland protocol," he said.
The trade border now means that Britain will be outside the EU's single market for goods while Northern Ireland remains within. Many of Northern Ireland's unionist parties fear it weakens Northern Ireland's position within Britain, as the trade border means a significant new economic barrier within Britain.
"What we're seeing is, for example, the movement of goods by supermarkets into Northern Ireland, they now have to have paperwork associated with all the goods in their lorries. Now that there have been agreements put in place to establish what's called a trusted trader scheme, which should ameliorate some of the paperwork. But if you're moving agricultural food products into Northern Ireland, those will have to have the certificates with them," said Phinnemore.
Currently, there is a grace period in place around the movement of meat products between Northern Ireland and rest parts of Britain, but that will expire after a number of months. After that companies moving most products made from meat, dairy and eggs from other parts of Britain to Northern Ireland will likely need to produce complex and expensive Export Health Certificates to fall in line with EU standards.
Phinnemore voiced his concerns that the post-Brexit deal only covers goods trade, without covering services, which may bring such bilateral problems as the cross border police cooperation and judicial cooperation.
"There's some provisions for that within the UK-EU agreement, but it's pretty underdeveloped. So therefore a lot of the cooperation has got to be reworked and put on a different footing," he said.
But where there are challenges ahead for Northern Ireland due to the deal, Phinnemore said he believes that there is the potential for opportunity.
"I think if you take the UK-EU deal and the Northern Ireland protocol, clearly Northern Ireland does have the benefit insofar of goods moving from Northern Ireland into the EU, moving as if they were in the EU, because it's part of the single market for goods. It's part of the EU customs union," he said.
This means that there's no friction on goods moving from Northern Ireland into the EU, and from the EU into Northern Ireland.
According to Phinnemore, that may prove "attractive" to some businesses.
"I think a lot of work needs to be done to identify how the situation can be developed. Such that Northern Ireland does become a place which people want to invest in, so that they feel as though they can benefit from being in Northern Ireland. It's difficult at the moment to see how that is necessarily possible. But at least with a deal in place, you've got a framework for the development of the future UK-EU relationship and Northern Ireland's position within that," he said.
Even though a deal is welcome news, Phinnemore said he believes Brexit has not only changed the relationship between Britain and the EU but also impacted the relationship between different parts of Britain.
Alike to Scotland, there is a feeling among Northern Ireland MPs that Brexit has been forced upon them.
"They do feel as though the arrangements being put in place are essentially being imposed on Northern Ireland. So there is a clear protest here that what's happening is essentially a Tory English agenda for the UK, which doesn't really take into consideration the particular position of Northern Ireland," Phinnemore said.
"People are going to be watching very carefully, because there are those who believe that the arrangements that have been put in place on Northern Ireland do undermine its position within the UK and certainly the whole post-Brexit political environment has been one in which you've seen greater calls for unification on the island of Ireland," he added.
Britain ended its EU membership on Jan. 31, 2020, four and half years after the country voted to leave the regional bloc.
The EU and Britain announced on Dec. 24, 2020 that they had reached an agreement that will govern their trade and security relationship starting from Jan. 1, 2021, after the end of the Brexit transition period.
The deal, which came after nine months of arduous negotiations between Britain and the EU, is the biggest bilateral trade deal signed by either side, covering trade worth around 668 billion pounds (913 billion U.S. dollars).
The EU is Britain's largest trading partner. Britain is the EU's third-largest trading partner in goods, after the United States and China. Enditem
