UK government defends unilateral decision to extend grace periods

Q Radio News/PA

The British Government has defended its unilateral decision to continue Irish Sea border grace periods until October as the minimum step necessary.

The first of the light-touch regulation schemes on goods from the rest of the UK transiting to Northern Ireland had been due to expire at the end of March.

Supermarkets would have had to produce export health certificates for all shipments of animal products since Northern Ireland is part of the EU’s single market.

Cabinet member Lord David Frost said the UK’s intervention should allow time for constructive discussions with counterparts in Brussels.

Businesses in Northern Ireland have been pressing for an extension to the grace periods to avoid a cliff-edge plunge into extra bureaucracy linked to the post-Brexit Northern Ireland Protocol.

A UK Government spokesperson said: “Lord Frost explained that the measures announced today, following official-level notification to the Commission earlier this week, were temporary technical steps, which largely continued measures already in place, to provide more time for businesses such as supermarkets and parcel operators to adapt to and implement the new requirements in the Protocol.”

The former Brexit negotiator in charge of forging the UK’s new relationship with the bloc spoke to Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic on Wednesday.

Mr Sefcovic has said the UK is in violation of its post-Brexit obligations.

The UK Government added: “He (Lord Frost) underlined that these were needed for operational reasons and were the minimum necessary steps to allow time for constructive discussions in the Joint Committee to continue without the prospect of disruption to the everyday life of people in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks.”

He noted that such operational measures were “well precedented” in other international trade arrangements.

Britain is set to breach international law for a second time, vice-president Sefcovic has warned.

The Irish Government also branded the intervention extending the soft-touch regulatory regime on some goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain as “deeply unhelpful”.