Decisions taken now will have long-lasting consequences: Dodds

Protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market and helping businesses prepare for Brexit are key priorities for me as Minister for the Economy.

I have always had a strong interest in the agri-food sector here and I will be working closely with the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Edwin Poots to support our agriculture sector and the wider rural economy.

There are significant challenges ahead. The GB market is vital for the economy as a whole: over half of all goods and services sold outside Northern Ireland were sold to Great Britain. In 2017 these sales totalled £11.3bn. During the same year, £13.3bn (65%) of goods and services were purchased from GB. Just under 23,000 Northern Ireland businesses traded with GB in 2017.

With the implementation of the Protocol, I am fully aware of the need to take action to protect this trade and the businesses and communities that rely on it.

I regularly engage with many people working across this sector and I understand the significant concern of many about how the Protocol will impact existing trade with GB. To give one example, the major market for NI beef is GB - 71% of sales from the beef and sheep meat processing subsector were to GB in 2017. Red meat firms are already operating at the smallest net profit margin (2.1%) of the entire NI food and drinks processing sector, and are therefore particularly vulnerable to the loss of market share. In 2018 there were 24,895 active farm businesses in Northern Ireland and all but 6% of NI farms keep cattle or sheep.

If the continuation of current level of trade with GB in agri-food products becomes impeded and/or prices decrease significantly within the UK market, the NI agri-food supply chain could be significantly impacted which would have knock on effects for the wider rural economy.

With this in mind, I will continue to work tirelessly to maintain our critical trade relationship with the rest of the UK.

The Northern Ireland Protocol is due to come into effect on 1 January 2021. The UK Government currently makes policy decisions through implementing the Protocol, negotiating a new trading relationship or through policy that determines our businesses’ trading relationship with GB.

While the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill was not amended to provide further protections for Northern Ireland’s trade with the rest of the UK, the Government in London has made a range of important commitments to protect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market. It is my intention to ensure that these commitments are met.

This includes a very significant pledge in New Decade, New Approach that it will legislate to guarantee unfettered access for Northern Ireland’s businesses to the whole of the UK internal market, and ensure that this legislation is in force for 1 January 2021. This should ensure there are no tariffs on trade from NI to GB and no discrimination against NI goods on the GB market.

The UK government has said it will engage with the Executive on measures to protect and strengthen the UK internal market.

It has committed to give Northern Ireland a voice in any UK delegations in meetings of the UK/EU specialised or joint committees discussing Northern Ireland-specific matters.

I want to ensure that the UK government delivers on all of these promises.

The Northern Ireland Executive must be involved at an early stage on any policy discussions around future legislation brought forward under the powers provided by the Withdrawal Agreement Bill.

Decisions taken now will have long-lasting consequences. We must get this right.

I pledge to keep Northern Ireland businesses at the forefront of the trade discussion and debate.