DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland’s goods imports from Britain were 32% lower in the first half of the year compared with 2020 after posting the smallest monthly decline in June since new post-Brexit trade barriers came into force at the start of the year, data showed on Monday.
Irish goods exports to Britain, which is not set to impose checks until later this year, rose by 68% year-on-year in June to stand 20% higher than the first half of last year. They were 1% lower than the same pre-coronavirus period in 2019.
Exports to British-ruled Northern Ireland, which remained in the EU’s trading orbit after Brexit, were up 43% year-on-year in the first six months, with imports into Ireland from the region almost doubling, the Central Statistics Office data showed.