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DUP MP Gavin Robinson said new EU rules coming around emissions and the sale of cars were going to have a "significant impact" on the car and motor trade in Northern Ireland . Under the Windsor Framework, the joint EU/UK accord that sets out post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland, the region continues to follow many EU trade and customs rules to ensure no hardening of the Irish land border. This has created friction with Northern Ireland's place in the UK internal market. Mr Robinson pressed Mr Benn on the car issue when he appeared at a meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee on Wednesday. "All of us met in October of last year, and I raised the issue of cars and the motor trade," he said. "And one month ago, I received a letter from the Secretary of State indicating that you're aware that there is emissions requirements that are going to have a significant impact on the ability of car trade within this UK internal market and there's a suggestion now that you may legislate at some point next year. "One issue is emissions, the other is on the commercial sale of vehicles, and the benefit in kind associated with that. "There's going to be a fundamental collapse of the motor trade, as one example within the UK internal market system, unless these issues are addressed." Mr Benn said a remedy is coming and he is conscious of a need for clarity before February 1 . "We will continue to work with the car manufacturers, but we've been quite clear with them that the future is going to be they're going to have to be aligned so there isn't the problem that you have identified," he said. Following the meeting, Mr Robinson issued a statement saying: “The Secretary of State continues to rely on whack-a-mole politics to address with the serious and far-reaching issues created by the Windsor Framework. "The experience of traders impacted by the barriers it has imposed is getting worse – not better. That is the hard trumh Ministers refuse to face. “Hilary Benn seems content to infer that everything is rosy in the garden, yet the trade figures he uses as evidence of this actually predate the removal of vital grace periods and derogations that his own government presided over. "The economic realities of today do not match the spin of yesterday.The Government’s stubborn and irrational defence of the Windsor Framework is leading to the diversion of trade from within our own country to foreign economic entities." He concluded: “It is high time the government practically recognised what is increasingly clear to businesses and consumers alike. "Northern Ireland is suffering under the Framework arrangements. Denial and delay are not viable options.’’
