New economic order awaits as Britain exits European Union

Ibec, the group that represents Irish business, has said that a new economic order awaits Ireland as the UK formally exits the European Union today.  
 
Ibec CEO Danny McCoy commented: “While the catastrophic implications of a ‘no-deal’ have been avoided, Brexit was always going to be an exercise in damage limitation. Even with an orderly UK exit that goes some distance toward mitigating the potential risks to the all-island economy, we will ultimately end up in a worse place than where we are now. 
 
“Immediate challenges remain on the horizon for Irish business. The new arrangements for Northern Ireland are complex, and many of the specific details of how they will work in practice still need to be worked out. 
 
“The revised deal does not deliver the same economic benefits for Irish business as the previous all-UK ‘backstop’ proposal, which held out the prospect of close north-south and east-west trade and regulatory alignment. This could have significantly negative economic implications for Ireland in due course. We have also been left with short, overly ambitious timelines to agree a future trade deal, which do not reflect business realities.  
 
“In any deal, the EU will want UK guarantees that it will not undercut its standards in the areas of state aid, competition, social, employment, environment, climate and tax – so called ‘level playing field’ commitments. If these are not forthcoming, market access will be limited accordingly.
 
“As a result, Brexit will remain at the top of the agenda in 2020.”