00:00There's no doubt about it that the last few years have been very challenging for
00:04manufacturing businesses in Northern Ireland, particularly small businesses.
00:07All of the issues around Brexit followed by COVID and a number of other issues
00:12about the cost of doing business have really made it very difficult. Northern
00:16Ireland businesses are very resilient so the good thing is that most of them have
00:19looked for workarounds to make them still be able to perform in the way they
00:23should be but there's definitely challenges for them all that we need to
00:26work through. One of the biggest problems with the Windsor Framework and the
00:31Northern Ireland Protocol is it has made it much easier for micro-sized
00:34manufacturing businesses up to 2 million to bring goods in, do what they need to
00:38do to them and put them out again. The problem is most of our businesses are
00:42between 2 to 10 million in the manufacturing sector and it's made it
00:45more difficult for them. All of our goods have to come through the red lane which
00:49means there's additional paperwork and it all gets held up so what we're doing
00:52at the FSB is really trying to lobby hard for these members of ours and other
00:57small and medium-sized manufacturing businesses to make it easier for them to
01:01do this business. The FSB celebrated its 50th anniversary in two weeks time and
01:06from the very start of it we were all about helping single sole traders right
01:10up to medium-sized companies to be able to thrive in the marketplace they're in.
01:15That's right through manufacturers, retail, everything so it's really
01:19important to us to take what our members are saying and make that visible in government
01:23through lobbying, through everything we can do to just make them better
01:27opportunities to do business. I think it's really important that all the
01:30manufacturers make us aware of what the issues are. We've been lobbying hard now
01:34for a number of years on the issues that have been brought to our attention and
01:37we've had some really good success and without the rigorous implementation of
01:42the Windsor Framework yet we still have an opportunity to speak to the EU and
01:46see if we can change some of that mindset and some of that thinking just to make it easier for Northern Ireland
01:51manufacturers to thrive and many of them to survive as well in this current environment.
01:56I think next week's going to be a great open forum where a lot of people are
02:00going to learn things that they didn't even know existed. There's a lot of
02:03technology going on in the background, there's a lot of new things coming
02:06through and it's so difficult to get that information to manufacturers and to
02:10be able to talk about doing stuff collectively. Most of the things that
02:13have been resolved through the Northern Ireland Protocol have been done in
02:16partnership with other companies whether it be freight companies or importers or
02:20export companies so I think next week gives everyone a great opportunity just
02:24to talk in an open forum and learn things that otherwise they might never
02:27have known.
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