First 'Not for EU' posters begin appearing in NI supermarkets

Tesco is the first supermarket chain in Northern Ireland to place "Not for EU" posters in their Northern Ireland stores.

Tesco is the first supermarket chain to place "Not for EU" posters in their Northern Ireland stores.

The signs are a result of the revised Brexit deal for Northern Ireland, the Windsor Framework.

Other food retailers in NI will need to have their posters up by Sunday. Some have also been seen in Centras.

The posters are part of a change to labelling rules which are intended to make it easier to move food products from Britain to Northern Ireland.

It is part of a broader package of changes to the 2019 Brexit known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The protocol kept the region inside the European Union's Single Market for goods, which allowed a free flow of goods across the Irish border.

However, it made trading from Great Britain to Northern Ireland more difficult and expensive.

The posters are part of a change of labelling rules which are intended to make it easier to move food products from Britain to Northern Ireland

Checks and controls on GB food products entering NI have been some of the biggest practical difficulties. It had to be shown that those products met EU standards.

Under the Windsor Framework, UK public health and safety standards, rather than EU standards, will apply for all retail food and drink.

That means GB traders who are sending food for sale in Northern Ireland should face no routine checks and minimal paperwork.

The flipside of this is the introduction of the "Not for EU" labels on GB food products, to give a level of assurance to the EU that products will not wrongly enter its single market.

The new posters are part of the labelling changes.

From Sunday, pre-packed meat and fresh milk being sent from GB to NI will have to be labelled as "Not for EU".

Businesses will also have to be registered as trusted traders to benefit from the reduced controls.

The UK government has indicated that it will initially take a light-touch approach to enforcement to give retailers time to adapt.

The changes do not mean the labelled products are now being produced differently.

Shoppers from the Republic of Ireland can continue to take goods home from NI supermarkets but the goods cannot be re-sold across the border.