One of the challenges facing people in any part of the UK seeking to come to terms with the partitioning of our country by the EU is that its architects are building their border gradually. Notwithstanding the fact that in one sense it arrived on 1 January 2021, there are other senses, as I highlighted in my Westminster Hall debate this week, in which it is still being constructed. 1 May 2025 witnessed the arrival, for the very first time, of the Irish Sea border in relation to ‘business to business’ goods movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland where those goods are conveyed in parcels.
The application of the Irish Sea Border to parcels movements might seem like a relatively modest development. It is, however, my contention that it presents a serious challenge, especially to many Northern Ireland manufacturing companies.
Northern Ireland’s economy has for two hundred years been fully integrated with the economy of Great Britain. Even before the South broke away, dividing the island of Ireland, the key relationships between manufacturers in what became Northern Ireland were with Great Britain, and especially England, rather than the South of Ireland. That remains very much the case today – there are around 4,500 manufacturers in Northern Ireland but relatively few in the Republic. In this context Northern Ireland manufacturers have long depended on being in relationship with the rest of our home economy, Great Britain, which has supplied the overwhelming majority of our manufacturing inputs.
The threat posed by the imposition of a customs border dividing the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland into two has been to put Northern Ireland manufacturers in a position where instead of being able to access their inputs from the rest of their home economy, Great Britain, as would part of any other country, they now find that EU partitioning has made Great Britain a ‘third’ or ‘foreign country’ in relation to us. Those inputs can now only move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland with an export number, a customs declaration, border control post checks and paying duty where required. The cost of negotiating the border is such that businesses are now pausing expansion in Northern Ireland in favour or elsewhere.
The significance of 1 May in all this is that up until now it has been possible for manufacturers and others to avoid the border to the extent that they have been able to move their inputs in parcels. From 1 May, however, and notwithstanding the absence of any evidence that the free movement of these parcels has damaged the EU single market in any way, this option has been taken from them. Now it does not matter whether businesses move goods inputs from GB to NI in parcels or not, they are subject to the partitioning of our country by the Irish Sea Border.
At this point someone might say, but what about the UK Internal Market Scheme (UKIMs)? The spin doctors tell us that this is a marvellous innovation and so long as businesses register on the scheme the border will largely melt away such that they will be left with minimal paperwork requirements. The truth is rather different.
The first problem is that the promised easements are only available for companies with a turnover of up to £2 million. Put another way, if your company has a turnover of more than £2 million you will have to make full customs declarations. While £2 million might sound like a lot of money to an individual, it is not for a company that employs more than ten people. Although there are some movements (some food, health, and construction materials) in relation to which the EU has intimated a willingness to waive the £2 million limit, in most contexts it will apply.
The second problem is that even if you comply with the ceiling imposed on Northern Ireland aspiration by the £2 million threshold, not all goods movements are eligible for this simplified procedure in any event. The Government has divided goods into three categories for the purpose of the UK Internal Market Scheme.
*Category 1 goods which have to be moved, regardless of the size of your business, subject to full customs declarations. They are ineligible for the simplified procedure.
*Category 2 goods which have to be moved, again regardless of the size of your business, subject to full customs declarations unless they do not fall under Category 1 and ‘an H8 controlled declaration, or a I1 C&F controlled declaration is submitted.’ Even in this event, however, full simplification is denied. ‘An 8-digit commodity code is required as well as licensing and documentary controls,’ and
*Standard Goods which can be moved via the simplified process.
Finally, even if you are under the £2 million threshold, and moving standard goods so you can access UKIMs easements, this does not have the effect of removing the border. You must still have an export number and provide information you don’t have to provide when moving goods within an internal market. You must also apply to become UKIMS registered which is complicated and you have to be subject to ongoing checks. None of these burdens are placed on you if you move goods within an internal market, as in GB, or in any other country for that matter. These burdens testify to the presence of the border.
Moreover, in considering all these points, we must never lose sight of the fact that the economic injustice is tied up in a constitutional injustice. The border has been called into being to protect the ‘integrity’ of an EU single market for goods which has been created through laws we have not made and cannot change, laws that have been imposed on us by means of the demeaning process of our disenfranchisement.
No self-respecting country with a future can allow itself to be treated in this way. Rather than looking to bow down even more abjectly to the EU, paying to give them the benefit of accessing our superior defence, we should now insist that they respect the territorial integrity of the UK. They should both reject the Irish Sea Border, and therein our disenfranchisement, and a hard border across the island of Ireland, by means of adopting Mutual Enforcement along the international border as set out in my EU Withdrawal (Arrangements) Private Members Bill.
