It was revealed yesterday that British steel manufacturers will have to pay a 25% EU tax in order to sell specific products in Northern Ireland.
HM Revenue & Customs declared that British producers and stockholders will have to pay to send steel within the UK’s domestic market in a politically contentious move.
However, EU steel companies will still be able to export their products to the UK duty-free, according to UK Steel, the industry trade organisation.
“It is beyond ludicrous that UK producers are now banned by these tariffs from selling goods to clients in their own country,” said Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, to the Financial Times.
To further add insult to injury, he said, “We can no longer export these commodities in the opposite direction, but EU steel producers can continue to do so tariff-free throughout the UK.”
Former Brexit minister for the Tories David Jones said the action was the “clearest conceivable indication” that the Northern Ireland Protocol was harming the integrity of the UK’s internal market.
He told the Daily Mail, “We cannot accept the absurd state of affairs wherein sales of commodities from one region of our country to another are subject to criminal levies.”
The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill was introduced by the government to resolve the issue, and the House of Commons passed it unamended before the recess.
The House of Lords must now play its part in ensuring that the Bill is passed into law as soon as feasible.
Concern over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which they see as establishing a border in the Irish Sea, has been a recurring theme among unionists.
According to the agreement, all products leaving the UK must pay EU tariffs if they run the danger of entering the Republic of Ireland or the EU single market.
To provide British businesses with a specific quota for exporting into the province, a temporary workaround was in place, but in July, Brussels opted to combine national quotas.
According to UK Steel, this meant that other nations were now able to participate in Britain’s share.
Liz Truss, the front-runner for the Tory leadership, has said she will not back down from UK demands to improve the agreement. The Government is bringing forward legislation to overrule the Protocol.
Although she forewarned last week that it would “take time” for the legislation to pass through Parliament.
‘This is another example of how the Northern Ireland Protocol is needlessly affecting trade within the UK, harming businesses in Northern Ireland, and highlights why it needs to be rectified immediately,’ a government spokeswoman said.
A long-term solution necessitates revisions to the Protocol, but we are in continual contact with industry representatives about workable solutions to this problem.