Northern Ireland will participate in future trade agreements once work is completed on a new framework agreement between the UK government and the European Union (EU), UK Northern Ireland Minister Chris Heaton-Harris said on Sunday.
The politician answered questions from Sky News after announcing last week a new agreement that would replace the Northern Ireland Protocol, originally negotiated to regulate trade in the province after Brexit, as background text.
“Yes, they can,” Heaton-Harris said when asked if he could ensure that the people and businesses of Northern Ireland can fully participate in future trade deals once the new framework agreement with the EU is finalized.
“Now we have about 3% of what was the existing community law left, and it will remain in place after (the agreement) is passed,” he said.
He added that “this is the minimum necessary to give companies the access they currently have to the single European market.”
Heaton-Harris was also asked what would happen if the Democratic Unionist Party [DUP – pró-britânico] did not support the Windsor Framework Agreement.
The minister indicated that this was a “theoretical question” and assured that he was working on “clearing up all the questions” of the trade unionists.
The DUP, which pulled out of the Northern Ireland institutions in protest of the Protocol, is weighing its reaction to a deal that eliminates most customs checks and gives more sovereignty to the Northern Ireland legislature.
“I would like to think that at this stage we will be able to put the executive branch to work, and we have already passed a law in Parliament last week, the Leadership Training Act, which gives me the ability to call elections any time next year if necessary, he said to Heaton-Harris.
However, he stressed that “the Windsor Framework Agreement is a big step forward” that “resolves all the issues before us”, although “some of them still need to be clarified by the unionist community”. .
The Windsor Agreement exempts British goods destined for Northern Ireland from supervision while retaining control of goods destined for the Republic of Ireland, which remains on the Community single market.
It also allows London to apply the same value-added tax and certain subsidies to Belfast as it does to the rest of the UK, and gives Northern Ireland’s devolved parliament a mechanism to end EU legislation that it sees as infringing on its interests.