Irish exports 'unlikely to face checks until 2025'

Irish agri-food products being shipped to Great Britain are unlikely to face physical checks until next year, the Welsh government has said.

From the end of next month goods from the rest of the EU will start to face physical checks when entering GB.

Theses checks are part of long delayed post-Brexit border controls.

Some of the controls started in January with the introduction of customs processes and official certification of some food products.

At that time the UK government said goods from the rest of the EU would start to face physical checks from 30 April, but goods from Ireland would not be subject to checks any earlier than October.

Now the Welsh government says it is "difficult to see how physical checks can be implemented before spring 2025".

Holyhead in north Wales is one of the main ports for Irish goods entering GB.

The Welsh economy minister, Vaughan Gething, said the Welsh government had given businesses a commitment that they would get a year's notice of changes.

Issues still to be resolved

In a letter to the Senedd Economy Committee he said there were also still issues to be resolved between the Welsh and UK governments.

The UK government has been asked to comment.

When the UK left the EU in 2021, goods from Great Britain going to the EU were immediately subject to the customs and regulatory processes applied to the imports from any non-member state.

However, the UK government was not ready to apply controls on EU goods and the introduction of those controls was delayed on five occasions in the subsequent three years.

*Holyhead in north Wales is one of the main ports for Irish goods entering GB.

Goods from Northern Ireland going directly to Great Britain do not face any checks or controls as the UK government has guaranteed they will have "unfettered access."

In January the UK government also confirmed it would not build a border control post at Cairnryan.

The Scottish port is the main access point for NI goods entering Great Britain.

A border control post had been planned in order to check Republic of Ireland goods being sent to Scotland via NI ports.

That was politically controversial as it raised the prospect of NI goods also being caught up in the checks.

The border control post plan has now been scrapped, but lorries from the Republic of Ireland will still be subject to spot checks.