An interesting perspective on that comes from our colleagues in Northern Ireland who have really been at the sharp end of those changes, with wider stability at stake for them in addition to the economic concerns that industry strives to avoid. The experience that businesses in Northern Ireland have endured in that respect is a cautionary tale. In May this year, industry body Manufacturing NI stated that a fifth of their businesses reported that suppliers from Great Britain were unwilling to engage with the new requirements, ultimately meaning that some of those businesses are no longer serving the Northern Ireland market. Put bluntly, if one in five suppliers in Great Britain see the additional barriers of the import checks required by Brexit as too great a burden to overcome for their UK partners in Northern Ireland, what do we think the ratio will be for our European suppliers? Paul Sheerin is chief executive of Scottish Engineering

Source: The Herald July 19, 2021 03:56 UTC