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Brexit checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland should be minimized, Stormont\u2019s First Minister Arlene Foster has said.<\/p>\nBrexit checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland should be minimized, Stormont\u2019s First Minister Arlene Foster has said.<\/p>\n
The country will have to follow EU rules on agriculture and manufactured goods, ensuring access to its single market and keeping the border with the Republic of Ireland free-flowing in a key concession maintaining a decades-old peace.<\/p>\n
DUP MPs voted in Parliament against the agreement between the UK and EU on post-transition period checks on shipments from England, Wales and Scotland destined for Northern Ireland to protect the EU\u2019s trading standards.<\/p>\n
Mrs Foster told the BBC\u2019s The Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: \u201cWhat we have to do now is minimize those checks and make sure that they do not damage the economy of Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best way to protect the Belfast Agreement and the people of Northern Ireland is to make sure that there are not unnecessary checks and the economy suffers as a result of the Northern Ireland protocol.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must make sure that we minimize those checks.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UK Government has said controls will be needed on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK as part of Brexit, but bureaucracy will be kept to a \u201cminimum\u201d.<\/p>\n
Those deemed to be \u201cat risk\u201d of entering the Republic of Ireland and the EU\u2019s internal market could have punitive tariffs placed on them if no free trade agreement is struck.<\/p>\n
The definition of exactly which are \u201cat risk\u201d remains to be resolved between EU and UK negotiators.<\/p>\n
Recently, DUP Stormont agriculture minister Edwin Poots said Northern Ireland could benefit from having access to the EU single market and the UK, making it an attractive place to invest.<\/p>\n
The DUP\u2019s opposition to an earlier plan to avoid a hard Irish border, the backstop, played a major part in the fall of Theresa May\u2019s proposed Brexit deal and the former prime minister\u2019s ousting from office.<\/p>\n