NI business leaders buoyant after Gove and EU counterpart meet
Northern Irish business leaders have expressed optimism that recent Brexit barriers will be eased following high-profile meeting to address protocol glitches.
Business leaders in Northern Ireland are confident that a solution to post-Brexit red-tape is in sight, reports the Guardian.
Following a meeting between Michael Gove and his EU Brexit opposite number, Maroš Šefčovič, on Thursday, Roger Pollen, head of the province’s Federation of Small Businesses said:
“The trouble with things like the parcels issue is that it starts to build up a lot of resentment on the street and when people here are experiencing the ‘not available in Northern Ireland’ then the protocol is having an impact on the life of communities”.
Business leaders said they were “pleasantly surprised” by the consideration shown by Gove and Šefčovič following weeks of cross-border disruption and bureaucracy, and Aodhán Connolly, the director of Northern Ireland’s retail consortium, said: “The message that we are working as hard as we can, but that we need support to make it work really seemed to resonate with both of them…”
“They were positive about everything that we put forward which was very disarming,” he said. “They’ve given a genuine commitment to work with us.”
In addition to the extension of the grace periods, business leaders have called for the simplification of border checks and mitigation to prevent costs for business and consumers in NI from rising.
