The Northern Ireland protocol is said to be a blight on regional economy. That’s just not true

theguardian.com:

Whenever Boris Johnson’s government wades into battle over the Northern Ireland protocol, it wields one assertion like a broadsword: that the protocol is ruining the region’s economy. Checks on goods entering Northern Ireland are disrupting trade, increasing prices and bankrupting businesses, and the damage will worsen unless the protocol is changed, goes the argument.

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a rightwing thinktank, joined the fray last week with a report that estimated the annual cost of the agreement at £850m.

“It underlines the many costs of the current situation – economic, fiscal, and in trade diversion,” said David Frost, the government’s former Brexit negotiator. “If the EU will not negotiate, then the government will be right to intervene unilaterally to restore stability.”

The problem with this justification for slashing the protocol – and risking a trade war with the EU – is that it is bogus. A growing body of evidence suggests Northern Ireland has adapted and started to profit from its new situation, with the benefits of full access to the EU single market and the rest of the UK outweighing the costs of administering checks on some goods entering the region from Great Britain.

“Every piece of evidence presented so far shows a positive impact,” said Stephen Kelly, head of Manufacturing Northern Ireland (MNI). The protocol initially disrupted supply lines but is now cushioning the region from the costs of Brexit, he said. “Our members have largely gotten to grips with it. Three-quarters of them say there are opportunities and [they] are grasping those opportunities.”

Kelly called the IEA report “bunkum” – an extrapolation from a handful of businesses that overlooks wider evidence. MNI estimates the