Irish cross-border trade not reflected in UK trade data Tuesday, 18 May 2021 By Patty Clayton UK dairy exports to the EU have recorded large drops since 1 January, as exporters face new trading conditions. This was mostly expected due to the impact of increased costs and customs related administration. However, it was thought that trade between Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI) would not be affected due to the NI protocol, which was put in place to keep this trade ‘free and frictionless’. Northern Ireland’s most traded product with ROI in terms of volumes is raw milk[1], which is typically processed in the south due to a lack of domestic capacity. However according to HMRC trade data, this cross-border trade has all but ceased, with export volumes of raw milk at less than 1% of normal levels so far in 2021. This raised the question of how the industry in NI was dealing with this milk, given its lack of processing capacity.