Sausage trade war brewing with Brussels
Prime Minister, Boris Johnson is, this week, reported to be considering the extension of the Brexit grace period beyond June, which will allow Northern Ireland to continue to sell British sausages and chicken nuggets. The EU is warning that this has potential to spark a UK trade war.
A post-Brexit arrangement was designed to keep the border between Northern Ireland and the South open allowing Northern Ireland to follow the EU’s trading rules.
At present Brussels is reported to be insisting on the toughest customs checks, resulting in sausages and mince produced in Britain being prevented from going on sale in Northern Ireland.
Environment secretary, George Eustice, described the scenario where British bangers were not able to sold in the Province as: “Bonkers” and that he had no idea why the EU seemed to want to impose what he called “idiosyncratic” rules on movements of chilled meats.
He told LBC this week: “I suspect it links to some kind of perception that they can’t really trust any country other than an EU country to make sausages. I think that’s a nonsense. I think we’ve got a very good sausage industry in this country, we’ve got the highest standards of food hygiene in the world.”
Eustice also told Sky News: “’What we really need the EU to do is to respect that part of the Protocol and put in place sensible measures to remove things like the nonsensical ban on selling sausages or chicken nuggets to Northern Ireland ” Brexit Minister, Lord Frost is to discuss the implementation of the Protocol later this week.
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