- by Kuroda Rice
- BBC News NI Business Correspondent
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited Coca-Cola factory HBC in County Antrim last month and spoke with local business leaders
Major companies such as Amazon, Sainsbury’s, Airbus and Coca Cola have endorsed the Windsor Framework in an open letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
They are also calling for the Northern Ireland Chief Executive to be reinstated.
New deal aims to reduce friction in trade between UK and Northern Ireland
The business leader is a member of the Confederation of British Industry’s President’s Commission and the Northern Ireland Council.
The framework was signed to change the Brexit Northern Ireland protocol and was announced after months of consultations.
Under the agreement, goods from the UK destined for Northern Ireland will pass through a new ‘green lane’, while a separate ‘red lane’ will be used for goods at risk of moving to the Republic of Ireland and the EU.
New NI Brexit deal details
This means that goods arriving in Northern Ireland via the green lane will have significantly less checks and paperwork, while red lane goods destined for the EU will undergo normal checks. .
In a letter, the group welcomed the framework and said: “This represents a huge opportunity for the economies of both Northern Ireland and the UK.”
They are also calling on politicians to use the momentum to restore Northern Ireland’s decentralized government as quickly as possible.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is boycotting Northern Ireland’s decentralized government in Stormont until concerns over the Northern Ireland Protocol are resolved.
It has not yet been announced whether it will support the Windsor Framework, but it has set up an eight-member panel to make a “collective decision” on whether to support the deal.
Party leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson said the party “wants to get this right, even if it takes time”.
MLA Sinn Fein and former Finance Minister Conor Murphy called the letter a “welcome intervention”.
“The letter describes the deal as ‘the most sustainable path forward’ and urges recovered executives to focus on the economic opportunities of the EU single market and unique access to the UK market. I am asking,” he said.
“This is a competitive advantage that is the envy of any economy, and it needs the right executives to realize its potential.”
