{"id":615,"date":"2022-06-16T05:51:26","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T05:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fusefornews.com\/2022\/06\/16\/northern-ireland-protocol-what-did-boris-johnson-say\/"},"modified":"2022-06-16T05:51:26","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T05:51:26","slug":"northern-ireland-protocol-what-did-boris-johnson-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/?p=615","title":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland Protocol: What did Boris Johnson say?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Reality Check team<\/strong>
BBC News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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\"Loyalists<\/span>Image source, <\/span>Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The government has set out plans to change the Northern Ireland (NI) Protocol, part of the Brexit deal Boris Johnson agreed with the European Union in 2020. It came into force in January 2021 and means NI still follows some EU rules. <\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It was aimed at avoiding checks on goods crossing the border with the Republic of Ireland, but it has led to checks on goods arriving in NI from Great Britain (GB). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) opposes this because it has created a trade barrier with the rest of the UK. However, following the recent elections, a majority of NI assembly members accept the protocol.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Johnson says he wants to “fix” the protocol because it has been “upsetting the balance of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement” (the peace deal signed in 1998). <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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His comments are in marked contrast to what he said about the protocol at the time he negotiated it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘A good arrangement\u2026 with the minimum possible bureaucratic consequences’ – 19 October 2019<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Mr Johnson gave this assessment in the House of Commons shortly after agreeing the terms of the deal, urging MPs to back it. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But annexes to the protocol set out a long list of EU laws that would apply to NI, including laws dealing with products of animal origin and the EU customs code. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The government’s own impact assessment,<\/a> published at the time, was clear. “Goods arriving in Northern Ireland, including from Great Britain,” it said, “would undergo regulatory checks in accordance with EU rules.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And an internal document<\/a> drawn up by the Treasury – leaked a few weeks later – warned that “customs declarations and documentary and physical checks… will be highly disruptive to the NI economy”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It also highlighted potential constitutional implications, saying NI could be “symbolically separated” from the rest of the UK. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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One year on from the changes coming into effect, the NI Chambers of Commerce found<\/a> that a very high proportion of members had experienced increases in prices of goods and services and the amount of time taken to transport goods.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

‘There will be no checks on goods going from GB to NI, or NI to GB’ – 8 December 2019<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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In December 2019, Mr Johnson said this on Sky News in response to a question about the warnings in the leaked Treasury document. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Parts of the Treasury document are now out of date (the possibility that tariffs or taxes could be charged on many goods crossing from GB to NI, for example, was removed by the signing of the new EU-UK free trade agreement in December 2020).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But it set out clearly that there would be a range of bureaucratic measures affecting GB-NI trade, including customs declarations, food safety checks, security checks, and regulatory checks on product standards. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), says that between 1 January 2021 and 20 March 2022 <\/a>various checks (whether on documents or physical inspections) were carried out at NI ports on: <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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