Podcast special: Has technology helped the Northern Ireland border?

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4.4 • 785 Ratings

🗓️ 24 December 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Had Covid-19 not continued to dominate the headlines this year, there's little doubt that the outcomes of the Brexit deal would have been at the forefront of our policy discussions. Britain has left the EU with a bespoke trade agreement, but it's far from perfect, as the Northern Ireland Protocol continues to cause problems, especially for trade flow between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. What have digital solutions done so far to get closer to our goal of seamless trade? Has it been enough? What problems are still left to solve and do the realities of Brexit simply mean that we can now never fully escape these new regulatory burdens?

To discuss, Kate Andrews is joined by Frank Dunsmuir, Head of Customs and International Trade Practice at Fujitsu; Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive of Manufacturing NI; and Shanker Singham, Chief Executive of Competere and an advisor to Fujitsu.

This podcast is sponsored by Fujitsu.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a special edition of the Spectators podcast.
0:05.0	I'm Kate Andrews, the Spectator's Economics Editor, and your host for the next half hour,
0:10.0	as we discuss the difficulties that still lie at the heart of the Brexit process.
0:14.0	Had COVID-19 not continued to dominate the headlines this year,
0:18.0	there's little doubt that the outcomes of the Brexit deal would have been at the forefront of our policy discussions.
0:22.6	Britain has left the EU with a bespoke trade agreement, but it's far from perfect, as the Northern Ireland protocol continues to cause problems,
0:31.6	especially for trade flow between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
0:34.6	What have digital solutions done so far to get closer to our
0:38.8	goal of seamless trade? Has it been enough? What problems are still left to solve and do the
0:44.4	realities of Brexit simply mean that we can now never fully escape new regulatory burdens?
0:50.2	To discuss all this and more, I'm joined by Frank Dunsmure, head of customs and international trade practice at Fujitsu,
0:57.0	Stephen Kelly, Chief Executive of Manufacturing N.I.
1:00.2	And Shanker, Singham, Chief Executive of Comptair, and an advisor to Fujitsu.
1:04.7	And this podcast is kindly sponsored by Fujitsu.
1:07.6	So Frank, Stephen, and Shankar, thanks so much for joining me.
1:12.4	Shankar, to start with, perhaps you can update listeners on what's going on at the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic at the
1:16.3	moment. What's happening is the UK government and the European Commission are discussing the
1:23.1	implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol and making and negotiating some potential changes to the way the protocol is implemented.
1:31.6	Those negotiations have been going on for some time and are probably not expected to conclude this side of Christmas and will probably run into the new year.
1:41.4	Now, in terms of where they are, I think, you know, you've got a number of
1:45.1	different issues. One is customs, the customs processes between Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
1:50.7	which have proved to be, you know, somewhat burdensome for traders and particularly for Northern
	...

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