damaged he said and i quote i think in aggregate the trade links between great britain and northern ireland are about three times as big as those with ireland and the single market so in aggregate those links in great britain are incredibly important so it's those links that are being sort of worn away by the way the protocol is working and that's why it's so important to deal with them notice that he uses aggregate here not actual figures now frost either didn't know what would happen when he signed the withdrawal agreement which contains the protocol or he pretended not to know now this is difficult to square with comments that his boss boris johnson along with michael gove made last year by saying that northern ireland would be in a very good position to benefit from the frictionless access to the european single market now while trade is rising between the republic and northern ireland it must be remembered that this represents a tiny portion of the republic's entire business northern ireland represents just two percent of exports and four percent of imports as we know brexit is causing harm in great britain but it's also harming trade between great britain and ireland exports to great britain from ireland are up NUMBER_TOKEN percent but imports in comparison rolls just two percent exports are high to the uk because hmrc are carrying out few if any checks on goods coming into the country notable declines in british imports are in food and live animals which are now all subjected to documentary and physical checks on arrival in irish ports business leaders in ireland have blamed the drop on brexit checks and controls that now exist at irish ports and airports along with the paperwork and health certificates required on all imports from great britain so while we don't have data on northern ireland to great britain the data for northern ireland to the republic of ireland and vice versa is demonstrating a trend that trend is moving towards an all-ireland economy brexit is damaging the union in a way that many of us predicted but brexiteers ignored the rot has set in northern ireland's economy is becoming more and more linked to the single market next year elections are due to take place for the stormont assembly the northern ireland parliament pro-protocol parties are likely to win a majority and in a few years time they will get a vote on whether the protocol should be renegotiated or not ironically the dup who campaigned for brexit did still thinking that it would strengthen the union they threw their lot in with the tories who turned around and betrayed them but for the dup their hatred of the european union and of ireland may eventually not only be their undoing but eventually the undoing of northern ireland as part of the united kingdom let me know in the comment section guys what you think about all of this as always your comments are greatly appreciated thanks a lot
START_INTERACTION_TOKEN let me know in the comment section guys what you think about all of this as always your comments are greatly appreciated thanks a lot END_INTERACTION_TOKEN