For businessman Dermot Johnson, Brexit has meant fewer goods but a lot more paperwork.
Take organic products, he says: “We brought in – we still do bring in – some organic goods, but there’s a whole form-filling and paperwork you have to do now to send organic goods across the sea [from Britain to Northern Ireland].
“So, if we’re working for a company that maybe does 30 or 40 goods, but they have got a couple of organic lines, some of them just go, we’re not doing that any more, even though we could sell them.”
This is a typical occurrence since Brexit, he says.
“We would probably get organic goods from about half the people we did, pre Brexit, so about half of them have given up on it,” he says.
Johnson is the managing director of Johnson Bros, a sales, marketing, warehousing and distribution business based in Lisburn, Co Antrim. His firm imports food and consumer products from Britain for sale in Ireland, mainly in the North but also south of the Border.
The frustration is evident in his voice as he describes the years since the UK left the European Union in January 2020. He describes it as “distraction and uncertainty and paperwork for paperwork‘s sake”.
“What it’s cost us is, it’s taken time, and management time, away from doing things that we should be doing,” he says.
“I probably spend more time – as opposed to trying to increase and improve the business – filling in forms, looking after regulatory [issues], trying to understand it.”
From his point of view, the announcement by the EU and UK on Monday that they would work towards a deal to remove most checks and paperwork on agri-food products moving from Britain to Northern Ireland “can only be a good thing”.
Such requirements have been among the consequences of Brexit for Northern Ireland which, because of its unique position both geographically and politically, remains in the UK customs territory but applies EU customs rules.
This week‘s commitment represents potentially the most significant easement of post-Brexit trading rules since the UK left the EU.
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Both sides have agreed to work towards a deal on sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) products – agrifood and plant produce.
This would “result in the vast majority of movements of animals, animal products, plants and plant products between Britain and the European Union being undertaken without the certificates or controls that are currently required by the rules”, both sides said in the agreement.
“This is huge,” says Stuart Anderson, director of public affairs with the NI Chamber, which represents more than 1,000 businesses.
Though he emphasises the caveat that this is a statement of intent, rather than a signed-off deal, “what’s really interesting is how wide-ranging the SPS deal is.
“It looks all-encompassing,” he says.
Two figures underline the importance of this for the North. Two out of every three of its goods, retail or wholesale, move between Britain and Northern Ireland, while the main markets for its agri-food industry – which produces food for 10 million people with a population of two million – are Ireland and Britain.
“So, it’s hugely important that the same rules are applied,” says Anderson, “and effectively those barriers to trade have been removed for farmers, for retailers and for those at every end of that agri-food supply chain, and that seems to be the direction of travel.”
“Whether it’s ‘not for EU’ labelling no longer being required, or effectively supporting the movement of things like seed potatoes ... they should be able to move freely, and that’s hugely encouraging.”
However, the devil will be in the detail. The next step will be to draw up, and reach agreement on, the text of a deal, which will then require some time to implement, meaning existing arrangements will remain in place until then.
“What we really need to know now is: how quickly they will get it done, and how quickly will they implement it?” says Anderson.
Many other issues also remain to be addressed.
“There’s nothing on customs, and customs is universal, they affect every business moving goods between GB and Northern Ireland ... so that’s certainly something we were hoping to see some movement on,” says Anderson.
He also raises veterinary medicines – “The grace period expires at the end of the year, so that’s one to watch” – and the implications of the last phase of “not for EU” labelling, which is due to come into force in July.
Dermot Johnson is working through the consequences. Another characteristic of the new rules in the years since Brexit is that “it changes so quickly, and what it says and what it does is ... sometimes, you wonder.”
He lists many anomalies – “It’s sort of Alice in Wonderland stuff, really” – that he is dealing with on a day-to-day basis, from the thousands of commodity codes to inconsistencies around tariffs, as well as concerns, including that the trusted trader scheme set up by the UK government as a support for businesses such as Johnson’s to smooth the import for goods will be withdrawn.
“We, like lots of people, do our best, but it’s a mess.”
