Letter: There is no objective justification for Ireland to be treated more favourably than other EU countries when it comes to checks on goods

A letter from Dr D R Cooper:

Letters to editor

There may be confusion over the arrangements for eradication of animal diseases in Northern Ireland, but the plans to prevent such diseases entering the province from outside are much clearer.

If a disease attempted to get in through one of the designated points of entry it could face EU checks, so its best option would be to come in over the land border thus avoiding any checks at all.

It will be recalled that this is because the Great Charlatan agreed that any checks on goods sent across from the Republic would constitute a "hard border", no matter where they were performed.

This is the absurd situation: France and Ireland are both EU members, subject to the same EU laws, but goods from France must now be checked while goods from Ireland must not be checked.

What we need is for somebody in France to lodge a complaint with the World Trade Organisation, pointing out that there is no objective justification for Ireland to be treated more favourably.

As argued in a letter last year (‘The UK should apply import controls on goods coming in across the land border into Northern Ireland’, June 3, 2023), in the background is the question of how substandard goods which entered through the wide open back door of the Irish land border could then be kept out of Great Britain.

Dr D R Cooper, Maidenhead