(Bloomberg) -- The UK and EU are preparing to postpone Brexit rules on parcel deliveries from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, suggesting Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s promise to repair relations with the bloc could be paying dividends.
Couriers face new rules from Sept. 30 that were agreed as part of the so-called Windsor Framework last year, a landmark UK-European Union deal meant to reduce friction on trade across the Irish Sea. But firms have warned they won’t meet the deadline to implement new requirements including on data sharing, and that parcel shipments could be impacted as a result.
So rather than risk a scenario that would likely exacerbate the region’s sensitive post-Brexit politics, the new requirements will likely be put on hold until a later date, people familiar with the matter said, without specifying how long the delay would be. The move could be formalized through an exchange of letters between EU negotiator Maros Sefcovic and the UK’s EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, they said.
Spokespeople for the British government and the European Commission declined to comment.
Northern Ireland’s status was one of the most contentious aspects of the Brexit negotiations, in large part due to the land border separating the region from the Republic of Ireland, and by extension, the EU. That shifted the focus to the Irish Sea, with checks imposed on trade moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a way of protecting the bloc’s single market.
But Northern Irish unionists, who are determined to keep the region in the UK, balked at a Brexit deal they said treated Northern Ireland differently from other parts of Britain. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the EU agreed the Windsor Framework to cut trade friction and ease unionist concerns.
Yet the delay on parcel rules underscores again just how complex the process is of extracting the UK from its largest trading partner — especially when it comes to Northern Ireland. It also shows how both sides are keen to avoid further political setbacks, after Starmer promised to reset relations with the bloc.
Sunak, too, had struggled with the post-Brexit fallout in Northern Ireland, where unionists boycotted the government in protest at the Brexit arrangements.
It’s not the first time the implementation of new rules has been delayed. Requirements for EU exporters to have health certificates when sending certain animal and plant products to the UK were postponed five times before coming into force at the start of this year. Plans to force food manufacturers to put a “not for EU” label on goods sold in Britain from Oct. 1 will also be pushed back, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.
Though the new rules on parcel shipments apply to all business-to-business shipping, the impact on courier firms is seen is as being particularly severe. New authorization criteria includes establishing an indirect customs representative Northern Ireland.
Once authorized, those carriers would need to collect and provide data on the parcel movements to UK customs, determine which import rules the parcel should follow, as well as “work closely” with customs to combat smuggling, according to guidelines published by the government.
Members of the courier industry had complained they were not ready for the deadline and that information on the new rules was insufficient. Darren Walmsley, vice chairman of the National Courier and Dispatch Association which represents independent UK couriers, said several of his members sent him alarmed emails after he mentioned the deadline in a recent newsletter.
“The communication about these requirements hasn’t been publicized very well,” Walmsley said, adding he only “stumbled across” the regulations inadvertently himself. The rules for couriers are “onerous,” he said.
--With assistance from Alberto Nardelli.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
