A border inside the UK brings Northern Ireland closer to the republic

LIKE MANY people, Viviane Gravey became more interested in gardening during lockdown. She bought dill and lettuce seeds from Real Seeds, a firm in Wales, and grew them on her balcony. But next year’s crop will have to come from another source, for the firm emailed her to say that, because of the new border in the Irish Sea, it would no longer sell to Northern Ireland.

During the fraught negotiations over the UK-EU trade deal, a number of British firms stopped supplying Northern Ireland. Now that the deal is done, some may return to the market, but the new border will raise costs. Firms may pass them on to consumers or decide that the Northern Irish market is too small to bother with.

The internal border is the result of the determination of the Irish and British governments to avoid the creation of a “hard” border on the island of Ireland. Negotiations on the withdrawal agreement nearly collapsed over this issue. Boris Johnson’s solution was to leave Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods, bound by EU regulations. EU customs rules will be enforced at Northern Irish ports.

Goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland will need new paperwork. From April 1st, for instance, when a grace period ends, animal products will need export health certificates. Aodhán Connolly, director of the NI...