As DUP's EU law policy sparks debate about NI's trade arrangements - Sammy Wilson says party will back 'mutual enforcement'

The party was accused yesterday of performing a U-turn on its ‘Safeguarding the Union’ document, with Gavin Robinson admitting that it had been oversold by the party.

In a speech to the party executive on Wednesday night, the DUP leader announced it would seek the removal of EU law and the Irish Sea border that it creates – potentially opening up a can of worms for a party with varying views on the issue.

However, removing Brussels legislation from the equation would require the support of both the UK and EU – and new arrangements would need to be agreed.

Alliance MP Stephen Farry told the News Letter that “ongoing adherence to EU law is the mechanism that provides us with dual market access for goods. Removing EU law would be really bad for our businesses and economy”.

Mr Wilson MP – who is running for the DUP again in the East Antrim constituency – says that ‘mutual enforcement’ is an alternative to the Windsor Framework – and that’s what the party will be arguing for.

Mutual enforcement means that authorities either side of the border would enforce the other’s standards, where those goods are being exported.

Variations of the policy were floated a number of times, including by the Ulster Unionists. Jamie Bryson proposed the idea in a Centre for the Union report in 2023 calling it a “legitimate compromise”. The report had the backing of DUP MPs and the TUV – but the previous DUP leadership didn’t seriously entertain the idea.

This week the former DUP head of policy Dan Boucher – who quit the party over its sea border deal with the government – backed the idea in an article in the News Letter.

He said: “From September 2021, the DUP leadership committed to the removal of the border in the Irish Sea, subject to the important caveat: ‘while maintaining privileged access to the Republic of Ireland’.”

He argued that mutual enforcement would mean “the full reintegration of Northern Ireland into the UK in the context of preserving our access to the Republic without a hard border”.

Mr Wilson said he supports the idea – saying that it wasn’t pursued by Sir Jeffrey Donaldson because there wasn’t any interest in the idea from the UK government.

Asked by the News Letter how it is possible for the DUP to support an end to EU law and also support dual market access – Mr Wilson said Northern Ireland already has access to the EU market through the trade and co-operation agreement under which the rest of the UK trades with the EU.

He says that SPS issues “can be dealt with by the policy which we had put forward previously – mutual enforcement.

“You could still have that dual market access in its entirety through what's already in place – and through the mutual enforcement arrangements – which unfortunately, although the UK government started to pursue with the EU, they then gave up on when they met Irish opposition and EU opposition.

“That will be one of the things that we'll be arguing and continue to be arguing for in the future”.

He said EU laws were imposed for goods and on manufacturers who “in most cases never trade with the EU anyway”.

“Very few companies in Northern Ireland actually trade with the EU, I think it's about 8%, the other 92% don’t.

“Yet because of the arrangements which Boris Johnson Theresa May had – and Rishi Sunak – those other 92% had to comply with the EU law as well.

“And it meant that any goods which they received, even from GB, even though they weren't at risk of going into the EU were deemed as if they were at risk until they could prove otherwise.

“And that led to all kinds of paperwork and extra costs and delays and reduction in supplies from people who didn't want to have the hassle of having to go through all that paperwork.

“That can be done away with and the other firms that wish to trade with the EU can have the benefit of trading with the EU on a non-interference basis through the means of mutual enforcement”.

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