NI Protocol: 'Potential attractiveness' being examined

The NI Protocol is the part of the Brexit deal that creates a trade border in the Irish Sea

Stormont's Department for the Economy is carrying out work on the "potential attractiveness" of the NI Protocol to inward investors.

The details are contained in an outline trade and investment strategy produced by the department.

The protocol keeps NI in the EU single market for goods, meaning NI-based manufacturers have better EU market access than those in GB.

The government says NI goods will keep "unfettered access" to the GB market.

This creates a potential incentive for "third country" investors, from countries like the US, to develop manufacturing facilities in Northern Ireland.

The strategy document states: "The department is working closely with Invest NI and external global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) specialists to identify potential implications (opportunities & challenges) of our new trading arrangements, including the potential attractiveness of GB and EU dual market access.

"This involves detailed consideration of the impact of new arrangements at a sector-specific level and will inform a new international investment proposition for Northern Ireland.

'Where opportunities exist we will seek to work with businesses and investors to exploit them in a planned, strategic way."

Invest NI, the inward investment agency, already uses the protocol in its marketing materials, describing NI as having a "unique proposition for manufacturers."

There has been opposition to the Northern Ireland Protocol from some in Northern Ireland

Following the UK's exit from the European Union and ending of the transition period on 31 December 2020, Northern Ireland continues to have access to the Great Britain and the EU markets for goods.

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The economy minister is the Democratic Unionist Party's Diane Dodds. Her party opposes the protocol and wants it to be removed.

That is also alluded to in the strategy which states: 'The protocol has impacted on our businesses and consumers with additional burdens which are neither proportionate nor sustainable.

"These additional burdens, including the friction in the movement of goods from GB to Northern Ireland must be addressed by the UK Government and the European Union."