Business 'pauses' EU and Northern Ireland sales

A Guernsey knitwear producer has halted selling hats and scarves to the European Union (EU) and Northern Ireland due to new EU rules which came into force on Friday, its bosses say.

The EU's General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) creates new requirements for Great Britain's businesses, including the need to have an agent in Northern Ireland or the EU.

Le Tricoteur said on social media it was "another blow for small businesses" as it had "limited exports to the EU and Northern Ireland (NI)", and it was pausing sales as a result.

Guernsey States and Le Tricoteur and have been directly approached by the BBC for comment.

The rule change applies to products going to the EU and Northern Ireland because Northern Ireland's Brexit deal means it is still effectively in the EU's single market for goods.

The change had updated existing rules to reflect the growth of online commerce and aimed to give better protections for consumers, the EU said.

That included the need to have a "responsible person", who was effectively a compliance agent, inside the EU or Northern Ireland.

The EU has been working on GPSR since 2020 and it was approved by the European Parliament in May 2023.

The clothing business said in its post: "We understand that the consumer needs to be protected… but doing a risk assessment on a woolly jumper was never part of our business plan."

It added it hoped to resume sales once it had "navigated" the changes.

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