Supermarket customers in Northern Ireland will be faced with less choice and higher prices this Christmas if new rules governing the importation of fresh food come into force in the autumn as planned, Marks and Spencer has warned.
In a letter to 海角视频 Brexit minister Lord Frost, chair Archie Norman set out the difficulties the retailer was finding exporting fresh products from Great Britain (GB) to the Republic and France following the end of the Brexit transition period, with copious amounts of intransigent red tape a particular bugbear.
He warned that it would need to streamline its offering and pass on extra costs to customers in Northern Ireland once a planned grace period for the importation of fresh food to Northern Ireland comes to an end in September.
In anticipation, Mr Norman said the supermarket had already taken the decision to delist some products in its Northern Ireland stores this Christmas, those which would be most at risk of falling foul of what he termed as 鈥淏yzantine鈥 rules it currently needs to follow when exporting to the European Union.
鈥淚t is not the overall purposes of the customs union that are the problem,鈥 Mr Norman said. 鈥淚t is the pointless and byzantine way in which the regime is enforced that is so business destructive.鈥
Speaking on BBC Good Morning Ulster, he said Marks and Spencer lorries heading to the Republic from GB have been prevented or delayed at the port for small flaws in the 720 pages of paperwork needed to pass controls, even for the wrong colour of typeface.
鈥淭he point about the current arrangements is that they are totally unsuited and were never designed for a modern fresh food supply chain between closely intertwined trading partners,鈥 he said.
Mr Norman鈥檚 comments came ahead of the release of a document from Westminster setting out how the 海角视频 government wants to amend the Northern Ireland protocol to allow more freer flow of goods from GB to the European Union.
It essentially wants the EU to accept the 海角视频鈥檚 food production standards as as good as its own and waive checks on the importation of goods across the Irish Sea.
