Nov 17 (Reuters) - British retailer Marks and Spencer Group
Plc told the UK government that European Union proposals
on Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trade rules would increase the
administrative burden on imported goods, the Financial Times
reported https://on.ft.com/3CkDPLa on Wednesday.
In a letter to UK Brexit minister David Frost seen by the
newspaper, M&S Chair Archie Norman said that the proposals from
Brussels "could result in worsening friction and cost and a high
level of ambiguity and scope for dispute".
The EU offered a package of measures to ease the transit of
goods from Britain to Northern Ireland last month, including
labelling to ensure British products do not slip into the EU
single market via a Northern Ireland back door.
The labelling requirement would add 9 million pounds
($12.14 million) in extra costs annually for the 90 million
products M&S ships to Northern Ireland from the mainland, Norman
said, according to FT.
Required checks would result in fresh goods taking 45 hours
longer to get to stores than when the UK was an EU member,
Norman said, adding that M&S might have to stop sending some
product lines to Northern Ireland, according to the newspaper.
"Detailed examination suggests to us that the proposals
could end up being more costly to implement than full EU customs
controls," the chair said in his letter, calling for a
"risk-based regime" with limited checks on goods that would make
extensive use of digital technology, FT reported.
M&S did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for
comment on the same.
Frost said on Wednesday that his government's preference is
to strike a deal to improve post-Brexit trade arrangements for
Northern Ireland and that the agreement can be reached by
Christmas.
($1 = 0.7415 pounds)
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman)
Marks & Spencer (MKS)