Unionists welcome establishment of Intertrade UK - but questions continue about budget and staffing
The new body tasked with dealing with problems associated with the Irish Sea border met for the first time on Friday – but questions persist about whether it is properly resourced.
The inaugural meeting of Intertrade UK took place at Lough Erne resort in Enniskillen – with a new panel of experts chaired by former first minister Baroness Foster.
DUP MLA Deborah Erskine welcomed the development, saying it represents an important step forward for Northern Ireland.
“Great Britain remains Northern Ireland’s most important market by value and volume. Its critical for our supply chains that consumers here have full access to their most important trading partner”, she said.
Mrs Erskine added: “I look forward to seeing the priorities and work programme identified by Intertrade UK for its initial focus over the next 18 months. Their work will be incredibly valuable in both promoting trade and identifying barriers. Whilst it is an important step forward, it needs to be matched by greater urgency from the UK Government in terms of resolving other long-term problems born out of the NI Protocol”.
However, the TUV’s Timothy Gaston has questioned why Stormont is not funding the body – despite spending over six million pounds on Intertrade Ireland. He said: “InterTrade Ireland have permanent offices in Newry. I currently have questions down about the total number of staff they employ. The most recent annual report on their website (2022) shows that at that time they employed over 50 staff”.
“As I pointed out during the debate on the estimates, there isn’t a penny coming from Stormont for InterTrade UK. It is important to remember that the idea of InterTrade UK originated with TUV. We never believed that it would be a substitute for getting rid of the Protocol but we did propose it as a body which could promote trade across the UK”.
He welcomed the body’s establishment and those appointed to it, but said “unless or until InterTrade UK has a statutory basis, a budget in the millions of pounds, offices and full time staff its ability to deliver will be a mere drop in the ocean compared to its all-Ireland counterpart.”