Yahoo Finance Northern Ireland minister says Brexit not to blame for supermarket empty shelves
UK minister Brandon Lewis has denied empty supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland were linked to Brexit, blaming COVID-19 and wider ports disruption.
The Northern Ireland secretary said photos of shelves missing products earlier this month were not a result of the Northern Ireland protocol, part of the UK-EU’s post-Brexit trade agreement.
He also said prime minister Boris Johnson’s promise of “unfettered access” had only referred to Northern Irish firms sending goods into Great Britain.
Trade between Britain and Northern Ireland has been subject to a wave of new regulations since the start of the month when the Brexit trade deal came into effect.
Complaints about disruption across the Irish Sea have been widespread, from lorries being rejected at Holyhead port over paperwork issues to Britain-based companies giving up on Northern Irish customers to avoid extra costs and requirements.
A string of leading supermarkets reported supply chain issues at the start of the month, with at least two highlighting Brexit.
Tesco’s chief executive Ken Murphy said last week his firm had “definitely” seen some Brexit disruption. There were some continued issues in “some limited areas,” but overall movement of supplies between Britain and Northern Ireland remained “very strong.”
A Sainsbury’s spokesman told the BBC a small number of products were temporarily unavailable “while border arrangements are confirmed.”
Meanwhile Andrew Opie, director general of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said issues were an “inevitable consequence” of how last-minute the trade deal had been wrapped up in late December.
"We did not get the final confirmation of how products could move until 31 December for a 1 January start. Therefore some products had more of a problem or were being held back for supply into Northern Ireland,” he also told the BBC.
But Lewis appeared to contradict retailers, telling Sky News on Tuesday: “Where we’ve seen some images of empty shelves in Northern Ireland–although let’s be clear we’ve seen them across the UK recently– [it] has been linked to Covid and some of the challenges we’ve had at Dover due to Covid just before Christmas and the flow through the supply line of that, rather than through the protocol.”
Britain’s ports and supply chains have suffered from wider disruption in recent months, with high global freight volumes, Brexit stockpiling, and France’s rules on negative COVID-19 tests for hauliers among the issues.
Yet Lewis’ omission of problems linked to the new UK-EU agreement will raise eyebrows, and his comments on a pledge by Johnson over Northern Ireland may also prove controversial.
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He told Sky News that “unfettered access was always about Northern Ireland businesses into Great Britain.”
Johnson’s pledge of barrier-free trade was made in answer to a question by a Northern Irish firm about sending goods to Great Britain in 2019. He told them to throw customs forms “in the bin,”
Official guidance says there are no barriers to goods flowing from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, as long as they are not from the EU.
But some statements by ministers are seen as implying no barriers to trade in either direction, despite the new hurdles for products headed for Northern Ireland.
Labour has accused the government of “denial” over such barriers, attacking Lewis’ previous claims there is “no ‘Irish sea border.’”
