RHA Members Growing Concern over the Windsor Framework

There are growing worries among hauliers operating in Northern Ireland about a continuing lack of clarity over the details of the Windsor Framework – which is due to come into force in October.

The framework was agreed in February and is designed to ease post-Brexit trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. It modified the Northern Ireland protocol – which was the 2019 agreement which kept NI inside the EU’s single market for goods, but which traders found to be very problematic.

The RHA is awaiting officials to spell out our concerns:

• Who will run the Trusted Trader Scheme and what are the costs involved?
• How long will the government fund the TSS – the Trader Support Service?
• How will the red and green lanes work in practice, especially where groupage loads are concerned?

The RHA believes it’s essential that these new systems, which are now just weeks away, are better explained by the government, so hauliers can prepare properly. Leaving it to the last minute is unsatisfactory for business and risks a chaotic start to the Framework.

The Windsor Framework aims to significantly reduce the number of checks required on goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland by introducing a system of green and red lanes at Northern Ireland ports. But labelling is a key issue for businesses because it determines whether they can trade in the Red or Green Lane.

The Green lanes will be for British goods staying in Northern Ireland, and labelled ‘not for EU’, while goods travelling into the Republic of Ireland – which is part of the EU – will use the Red Lane.

Products going through the Green Lane will not need checks and won’t need much paperwork while red lane goods would be subject to checks.

The British Retail Consortium has said it wouldn’t be possible to run a commercial supermarket by putting all of their trade through the red lane saying “it just wouldn’t work, the numbers wouldn’t stack up”. Any changes to supermarket labels would take months so clarity is needed by supermarkets urgently.

Retail NI agrees with the RHA in saying “so much more clarity” is needed for their members ahead of the October deadline. They have called for more engagement with business groups, as a lot of political engagement has either slowed down or stopped.

Different sectors will be affected in different ways by the Windsor Framework.

Some RHA members believe however, processes will be more burdensome under the Windsor Framework than under the protocol as it operates now. The RHA membership has been highly engaged on the issue working with our team John Martin and Pamela Dennison on their concerns which have been consistently relayed back to government officials at DEFRA, HMRC and the NI Office since the Framework was agreed in February.

Where there is uncertainty, the Red Lane, with its more complex procedures, will have to be used at the border. Although some believe the framework brings significant improvements in areas such as medicines, pet travel and some retail goods – but for haulage it’s often a different story. One of the major issues raised by our members is the treatment of “groupage” freight and mixed loads. The concern is that if just one pallet on a truck contains goods which are going on to the Republic of Ireland, then the entire load which was destined for NI, will need to be processed through the Red Lane – with more bureaucracy and cost.

The RHA says that groupage was forgotten about in the original NI Protocol – and hasn’t really been remembered in the Windsor Framework.

We continue to engage with officials to seek that urgent clarity for our members.