This week, I spent my BIT time writing a piece for Encompass:

The end of the summer marked a quick return of the Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP), which governs post-Brexit trading relationships between Northern Ireland, Great Britain, and the Republic of Ireland, to the top of the UK’s political agenda and to the centre of media attention.

Since coming into force on January 1st, 2021, the NIP has made the headlines mainly for the tensions it created within NI and between the UK and the EU. UK Brexit Minister David Frost recently announced the extension of so-called ‘grace periods’ on border controls for certain goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. This is the third time the UK Government is extending the grace periods and thereby effectively refusing to fully implement the NIP. The first unilateral extension in March 2021 led the EU Commission to trigger legal action (which have since been put on hold). This time the Commission accepted the move to create space for further discussions around the implementation of the protocol. Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party – the dominant force in the Stormont Assembly and Executive – continue to fiercely oppose the NIP.

Yet, recent trade figures released by the Irish Central Statistics Office (CSO) remind us of an often-neglected fact: That the NIP has the potential to provide Northern Ireland with very considerable economic advantages. [Read full article here…]