After several weeks of low-key negotations between the EU and UK, politics returned to the Northern Ireland (NI) protocol debate this week.

Lord Frost, the UK minster responsible for implementing Brexit, wrote in a newspaper article that “the EU needs to find a new approach and new solutions” to the operation of the protocol and accused the EU of taking a “very purist view”.

He also appeared to rule out veterinary alignment when appearing before a parliamentary committee.

Of course, the agreement was signed off by the UK as well as the EU, so it can be argued the strict inspection requirements shouldn’t come as a shock.

Yet the reality is that from an operational perspective, a set of rules designed to deal with the huge-volume transactions of international trade simply don’t suit the multiple small-volume transactions typical of trade between Britain and NI.

No off-the-peg solution

There is little to benefit farmers in prolonged dispute resolution mechanisms on precise interpretation of what the protocol and wider trade agreement mean.

What is required is to protect the integrity of the EU single market while maintaining a UK single market.

That is difficult if not impossible to achieve within the current legal frameworks.

Finding a mechanism that protects both separate single markets that intersect in Northern Ireland is likely to require a bespoke new mechanism as opposed to an off-the-peg solution.

Ideally, the UK would, at least on a temporary basis, adopt EU veterinary standards

That solution has to involve a risk-based judgement element that removes the need for certification and inspections on small volumes of product entering NI from Britain but that won’t be traded beyond NI.

Current EU sanitary and phytosanitary laws don’t provide for this, hence a new model has to be designed.

Ideally, the UK would, at least on a temporary basis, adopt EU veterinary standards. That would allow trade from Britain to the EU operate similar to what it was when the UK was part of the single market. However, it is being resisted by the UK government, to the cost of its agri-food exports.

NI meat, dairy and fish exporters have been able to continue trade with the EU in a way envied by their counterparts in Britain

The EU may argue that it shouldn’t have to make changes to its rules at the behest of the UK government, which left the EU. However, given the unique position of NI sharing a land border with the EU, UK co-operation with the management of EU border controls is essential.

If this can be made happen, then NI can have the best of both worlds, bagging the benefits of being part of the EU and UK single markets at the same time.

While there has been considerable attention on the difficulties for goods entering NI from Britain, there has been little attention given to goods leaving NI for either the rest of the UK or EU markets.

NI meat, dairy and fish exporters have been able to continue trade with the EU in a way envied by their counterparts in Britain.

Farmers can send milk and lambs south for processing and source replacement stock for trade the other way.

How it could all go wrong

The protocol is an integral part of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) between the EU and UK that provides for tariff and quota-free trade.

If agreement on implementation isn’t reached and dispute mechanisms triggered, the potential exists for introduction of penal tariffs, which the TCA was designed to avoid.

That would be a nightmare scenario for farmers either side of the Irish border.

Farmers need the EU and UK to find a way so that NI can have the best of both worlds

There are already plenty of developing problems with the UK’s position in global trade, including deals with Australia and New Zealand, that are exercising the minds of farm leaders.

It is this independent trade policy formation that makes the EU so reluctant to create special rules for the UK and hence the border controls between Britain and NI.

Farmers need the EU and UK to find a way so that NI can have the best of both worlds rather than the TCA unravelling and farmers across the island of Ireland finishing up with the worst of all worlds.