As Donald Trump fires the opening salvos of his trade war, Brexit continues to apply hammer blows to the wedge being driven between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. You can see how the Windsor Framework is impacting businesses in the province, almost certainly forcing more and more firms into working with suppliers and counterparties in the south. A Newsletter from the Northern Ireland Assembly (NIA), ironically titled Brexit and Beyond, 1 April 2025, reveals the extent to which trade is being throttled and diverted away from Great Britain.
First, I note the NI Assembly actually has an ‘EU Affairs Team’ that prepared the content of the newsletter. This is another thing Boris Johnson didn't foresee, but I suppose it was inevitable.
There are 13 topics covered:
- The Independent Review of the Windsor Framework
- Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Veterinary Agreement
- Horticulture Trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- The UK-EU reset
- Fishing negotiations
- Strengthening Northern Ireland’s Voice in the context of the Windsor Framework
- Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2025
- Trade with the US
- UK-EU relations: Coalition of the Willing
- AI and the EU
- New Royal Mail arrangements
- EU Trade Commissioner Šefčovič visit to Beijing
- Round 6 of the EU Swiss enhanced FTA took place in Switzerland
None of this will get a mention in the media over here, you can be sure, but the malign effects of Brexit on Northern Ireland, which voted to remain, are plain to see in almost every sector.
Take horticulture as an example. A DUP MP, Gregory Campbell, speaking in the House of Commons last week, referred to research carried out by the Consumer Council in Northern Ireland which looked at the:
“experiences of retailers that do not deliver to Northern Ireland, focusing on online marketplaces. It did a survey of over 1,000 Northern Ireland customers, and 76% of those surveyed stated that they had experienced online marketplaces that do not deliver to Northern Ireland. The second most common product category was garden plants, seeds and horticulture—38% of those surveyed said that they experienced the impossibility of getting plants and seeds delivered.”
A stunning 76% of people in NI had experienced problems when trying to purchase stuff online, not just horticultural products but all kinds of things. Plants and seeds were just the second most common items it was proving impossible to source in GB.
On AI, the newsletter reports that only last Monday, the EU Commission had officially proposed adding the EU AI Act to the list of EU legislation that applies in Northern Ireland post-Brexit. If we have different rules it will simply add a new barrier.
The House of Lords last week approved the clumsily titled Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2025, which Lord Hunt said in debate will:
"update the pre-existing enforcement regime in accordance with what was agreed in the Windsor Framework. If we do not update regulations with respect to Northern Ireland, market surveillance authorities would not be able to enforce the law and we would then risk breaching our obligations under the Windsor Framework. We think that consumer products, ecodesign and energy labelling go hand-in-hand with providing consumers with valuable information, enabling them to make an informed choice and eventually driving the market towards more energy-efficient products."
The UK Ecodesign rules are virtually a copy and paste of the equivalent EU regulations but slightly modified to give us a sense that we are somehow different without needing a whole new and unique range of European-made white goods like dishwashers and refrigerators.
Kate (Baroness) Hoey, the former Labour MP and devout Brexiteer said the new regulations would really "hit home with people going about their day-to-day lives. They affect electrical household goods, household tumble dryers, smartphones, mobile phones and numerous other goods in everyday use."
Imagine what would happen if the government didn't match EU rules. Presumably, she wants goods that are all specially designed for Northern Ireland, never mind the cost.
Trade war
Just a reminder, today is Liberation day in the US. Trump is scheduled to unveil his latest tariffs and apparently start to levy them on the same day! Nobody knows at what level, on which products, or in which countries. Trump says it will liberate America.
The BBC report that import taxes (aka tariffs) have come so thick and fast since he took office that it can be hard to keep track.
"Trump has already raised duties on Chinese imports, as well as steel, aluminium and some goods from Canada and Mexico. Higher levies on cars are due to go into effect this week. We're now waiting for Trump to unveil the details of his plan for a wider set of tariffs, which his team has spent the last few weeks developing."
China and the EU are all set to retaliate and after that Trump will presumably raise the tariffs even higher until America's international trade comes to a complete halt.
His deranged spokeswoman Katherine Leavitt claims billions of dollars of investment is ‘pouring’ into the USA and these tariffs will somehow magically trigger a golden age of manufacturing. The American trade deficit, that Trump wants to shrink, has actually ballooned over the past few weeks as businesses have imported extra stocks to give them a buffer against these huge tariffs over the next few months.
My guess is that what Trump announces today will not be quite as bad as he has indicated but we'll see.
Florida/Wisconsin
Florida held a special election yesterday to fill the Senate seat that was previously held by National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. The result was eagerly awaited by Trump’s opponents in the hope that Trump's majority would be reduced. It was not to be.
The Republican candidate won but only narrowly in a constituency that the GOP took by a massive 30% last November, so there's hope yet that voters are turning against Trump.
Better news in Wisconsin where Democrat Susan Crawford defeated the Republican Brad Schimel for a post on the state's Supreme Court, despite Elon Musk attempts to bribe voters to support Schimel:
Trump won Wisconsin by a wafer-thin margin last year but the tide may now be on its way out. Let us hope so.
