"Trade after Brexit tied up in knots: For Northern Ireland, Brexit means red tape and government subsidies"

Description

One of the paras (out of a total 7) in this article in The Economist was based entirely on my analysis of the "cost" of the Northern Ireland Protocol to NI private sector and to NI public  sector (latter in terms of additional public spending requirements)

Subject

Impact of the Protocol

Here is the relevant paragraph:

"Esmond Birnie, an economist at Ulster University, has sought to quantify the costs in more expensive imports, new customs checks and extra red tape. The protocol benefits some businesses by allowing them to stay within within the EU's free-trade area, he says, but not  enough to offset such costs. Using early trade data from this year, he reckons the "protocol penalty" will be around 2% of Northern Ireland's GDP".