Post-Brexit rules threaten N Ireland aerospace, minister warns

  • Date: 20-Apr-2021
  • Source: Financial Times
  • Sector:Defense
  • Country:Middle East
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Post-Brexit rules threaten N Ireland aerospace, minister warns

Northern Ireland's economy minister is pushing the UK government to ease the strains of post-Brexit rules that threaten the competitiveness of the region's aerospace industry by forcing companies to pay tariffs on raw materials imported from Great Britain.

Diane Dodds outlined aerospace companies' mounting concerns in a recent letter to Lord David Frost, the Cabinet minister in charge of post-Brexit trade arrangements, and urged him to "ensure that the competitive position of Northern Ireland businesses within the UK internal market was not damaged“ by the imposition of tariffs.

Under the Northern Ireland protocol, which sets the terms for the region's post-Brexit trade, raw materials moved by aerospace companies from Britain to Northern Ireland are defined as being "at risk“ of being moved into the EU.

That means the importing company has to pay tariffs on the raw materials as soon as they enter Northern Ireland or Ireland, a cost that could run to £14m a year according to ADS, Britain's trade body which represents most of the 90 aerospace companies that employ more than 10,000 people in Northern Ireland.

The actual tariffs are ultimately refundable, but ADS said administration costs could run to as much as £65m annually and argued that the raw materials