Brian Keegan: NI protocol is working, it‘s the processes that need smoothing

Flawed as it is, the protocol plays a big role in volumes of trade on the island of Ireland which are very much in the North’s favour

Freight trucks at Dublin Port in January: Ireland’s imports from Britain for the first two months of 2021 more than halved compared with the same time in 2020. Picture: Getty

International agreements can be negotiated, revised, suspended or perhaps ignored. They are rarely sandpapered. Yet that was what Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, suggested was required for the Northern Ireland protocol last week.

The protocol has become the cause of dissent not just between London and Brussels, but also between Dublin and Belfast, despite its potential to offer lasting benefits to Northern Irish industry.

Because it establishes the North as a special zone for ...