{"id":55228,"date":"2025-10-01T15:36:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/55228\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T15:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T15:36:08","slug":"cross-border-trade-now-oasis-of-calm-businesses-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/55228\/","title":{"rendered":"Cross-Border trade now \u2018oasis of calm\u2019, businesses told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trade between the Republic and Northern Ireland is \u201can oasis of calm\u201d in an increasingly disruptive world that should be seized upon by businesses on both sides of the Border<\/a>, companies have been told.<\/p>\n

Companies thinking of exporting abroad should first sell across the island of Ireland, Professor Richard Ramsey of Queen\u2019s University Belfast Business School told an InterTrade Ireland<\/a> conference held in Dublin.<\/p>\n

The lure of extra business deals on the other side of the Border in a market with the same language, similar regulations and benefiting from the European Union\/United Kingdom has been heightened by global uncertainty, he went on.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty is now \u201cfive times higher\u201d than it was just a year ago, fuelled by US President Donald Trump\u2019s <\/a>pressure on long-independent US institutions, such as the Federal Reserve: \u201cThe scale of it is unprecedented,\u201d Prof. Ramsey declared.<\/p>\n

Colin McGabrey of InterTrade Ireland said the growth of cross-Border trade since the Belfast Agreement in 1998 continues uninterrupted, rising from \u20ac2 billion then to \u20ac15 billion last year.<\/p>\n

This year, the growth continues. Food and beverage sales from the Republic to Northern Ireland have risen by 10 per cent in the first six months of the year, while sales in the other direction have risen by 23 per cent.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Economic concerns growing across the island, warns InterTrade IrelandOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Companies on InterTrade Ireland\u2019s lists have successfully used the experience of selling across the island of Ireland before going on to sell in Britain, the United States, or elsewhere, he said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, companies should first examine the opportunities that exist from public tenders in the Republic and Northern Ireland, Dave McClements of the consultancy, Core Growth told delegates.<\/p>\n

Public tenders are now worth \u20ac25 billion annually, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s the best way to get sales, it\u2019s the best way to export. I can\u2019t think of a quicker or cheaper way to have opportunities on your doorstep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Should we put more money into Irish soccer? <\/p>\n

Such contracts can be explored by novice companies from \u201ctheir desktops\u201d, running on clearly laid out rules: \u201cWhat a fantastic way to accelerate export with a relatively low investment in time, shoe leather, flights, everything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, companies must ensure that they are complaint with regulations on the other side of the Border \u201cfrom the get-go\u201d, said Mr McCabrey, who is Director of Trade with the Newry-based InterTrade Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one construction company from Derry who won a contract in Donegal and then had never thought about the complications of employing people in the other jurisdiction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve businesses coming for advice after they\u2019ve already established a custom and practice that hasn\u2019t been the right one. It takes nothing to have a conversation around just how we can help you get those basics right at the start,\u201d he went on.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, companies were reminded that a \u20ac21,000 InterTrade grant will cover half of the cost of setting up a cross-Border sales operation. So far, the grant brings \u20ac225,000 worth of business to the companies qualifying for it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are a smaller business and you don\u2019t necessarily want to employ someone yet, you can go part-time and bring in a consultant to help you shape that avenue of the business,\u201d Mr McCabrey told delegates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trade between the Republic and Northern Ireland is \u201can oasis of calm\u201d in an increasingly disruptive world that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9686,969,61,39180,60,43,2443],"class_list":["post-55228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-common-ground","tag-donald-trump","tag-ie","tag-intertradeireland","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}