Windsor Framework: Business leaders support new deal

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke with local business leaders during a visit to Coca-Cola factory HBC in County Antrim last month

Major businesses including Amazon, Sainsbury's, Airbus and Coca Cola have backed the Windsor Framework in an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

They have also called for the Northern Ireland Executive to be restored.

The new deal seeks to reduce the frictions on Great Britain-to-Northern Ireland trade

The business leaders are from the Confederation of British Industry's Presidents' Committee and Northern Ireland Council.

The framework was signed to alter Brexit's Northern Ireland Protocol and was announced after months of talks.

Under the agreement, goods from Great Britain destined for Northern Ireland will travel through a new "green lane", with a separate "red lane" for goods at risk of moving onto the Republic of Ireland and the EU.

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That would mean products coming into Northern Ireland through the green lane would face significantly reduced checks and paperwork, whereas the red lane goods destined for the EU would still be subject to normal checks.

In the letter, the groups welcomed the framework saying "it represents a huge opportunity for both the Northern Irish and Great British economies".

They also call on politicians to use the momentum to restore devolved government in Northern Ireland as swiftly as possible.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is boycotting Northern Ireland's devolved government at Stormont until its concerns about the Northern Ireland Protocol are addressed.

It has yet to say whether it supports the Windsor Framework, but has set up an eight-member panel to come to a "collective decision" on whether to back the deal.

Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said the party "want to get this right however long it takes".

Sinn Féin MLA and former finance minister Conor Murphy called the letter "a welcome intervention".

"The letter describes the agreement as the 'most sustainable path forward' and calls for a restored executive to focus on the economic opportunities of our unique access to the EU single market and British market," he said.

"That is a competitive advantage which is the envy of economies everywhere and we need an executive in place to deliver on its potential."