The Irish Times (HERE) has a report about the extent to which Northern Ireland relies on trade with the Republic for its exports. Figures from the NI Office suggest 30% of NI exports (£2 billion) cross the border to southern Ireland, while just 1% of the Republic's exports (£1 billion) go north. I think these figures will surprise many people and will focus minds on the catastrophic consequences of a hard border for one part of the United Kingdom.
Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI. is quoted saying, "With 750,000 business transactions from business to business from North to South, if Northern Ireland is outside the EU, we run the risk of needing origin certificates for all those trade transactions. That could potentially add hundreds of thousands of pounds of costs onto the manufacturing sector, particularly for smaller firms, which could potentially create a crisis in the manufacturing sector in Northern Ireland".
"Run the risk"? There is no risk, it's a cast iron certainty.
Gavin Killeen, MD of Nuprint, a Derry-based company supplying labels and packaging for food and drink companies across Ireland talks of the difference between the two economies. The south is apparently one of the most advanced economies in the EU, while the north is stagnant and heavily reliant on government spending.
It's almost as if Britain is keeping Northern Ireland literally as a dependent territory, a sort of useless appendage that doesn't do much but has been around so long we haven't the heart to cut it loose. I'm not sure the Republic would like to have a united Ireland if it meant having to prop up a lot of unionists while they're weaned off public money.
