Skip to main content

Challenge to NI dismissed.

The Supreme Court has thrown out a legal chal­lenge to the deal gov­ern­ing post-Brexit trade in North­ern Ire­land, rul­ing unan­im­ously it did not under­mine the region’s con­sti­tu­tional status as part of the

Brexit

UK. The judg­ment yes­ter­day came after two defeats in lower courts and marks the end of the road for court chal­lenges over the leg­al­ity of the so-called North­ern Ire­land pro­tocol. The Demo­cratic Uni­on­ist party, which has boy­cot­ted the region’s power­shar­ing exec­ut­ive and assembly since May last year, said the rul­ing did not alter its demands for sweep­ing changes to the pro­tocol, which drew a cus­toms bor­der for goods in the Irish Sea. «A solu­tion to the pro­tocol was never going to be found in the courts,» said Sir Jef­frey Don­ald­son, the DUP leader.

«The gov­ern­ment must con­sider this judg­ment, their argu­ments to the court and take the steps neces­sary to replace the pro­tocol with arrange­ments that uni­on­ists can sup­port». They claimed that the pro­tocol was incom­pat­ible with the 1800 Acts of Union’s guar­an­tee that the region should be on the same foot­ing in respect of trade as people in the rest of the UK. They argued the pro­tocol was unlaw­ful under the 1998 North­ern Ire­land Act, the legal found­a­tion for devolved power-shar­ing, and should have been given a cross-com­munity vote. The rul­ing came as talks con­tinue between Lon­don and Brus­sels to find a polit­ical solu­tion to dif­fer­ences over the pro­tocol after months of wrangling.

The UK gov­ern­ment was thus author­ised by the 2020 EU Act to draw up the pro­tocol. Des­pite the defeat, staunch uni­on­ists por­trayed the rul­ing as a vic­tory, accord­ing to Sarah Creighton, a uni­on­ist com­ment­ator and law­yer. 

www.sba.tax

Comments

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

  The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

EU business slide.

  S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...

India- UK trade deal.

  According to India's top trade official, talks with the UK regarding a trade agreement are progressing well, despite obstacles related to temporary work visas and the opening up industries like automotive and spirits. The Commerce and Industry Minister, Piyush Goyal, explained that India is seeking transition periods or greater market access in specific sectors due to its economy, which is slightly larger than the UK's and expected to outgrow it in the coming decades. If a trade deal is reached, it would be one of the most significant agreements for Britain since leaving the EU, and it would also be necessary for India, which surpassed the UK as the fifth-largest economy last year. Goyal stated that India aims to increase its economy from $3.5tn to $35tn by 2047, the country's centenary of independence. According to officials and diplomats in India, talks about a proposed trade deal may be finished by early September, just in time for the G20 summit in New Delhi. Nigel Hu...