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| - Businesses in Northern Ireland will be able to use a new free service to complete import paperwork after UK-EU trading terms change later this year, the British government said Friday. The support scheme will complete import, safety and security declarations on behalf of firms bringing goods into Northern Ireland, which will have a special post-Brexit trade status. Britain formally left the European Union on January 31 but is currently in a standstill transition period until the end of 2020 as it tries to negotiate a new trade deal with the European Union. The stalled talks are set to continue until October but fears are growing that almost half a century of economic integration with Europe and increasingly frictionless travel will end abruptly on December 31. London last month launched another preparedness advertising blitz and unveiled its first detailed proposals for managing the country's borders -- but delayed publishing specifics for Northern Ireland. The blueprint confirmed the adoption of a staged approach to border enforcement over the first six months of 2021, with initial "light-touch" checks on goods from the bloc. However, Friday's announcement is the most detailed yet on how it plans to manage Northern Irish trade with mainland Britain and Ireland, which remains an EU member and will be the UK's only land border with the bloc. The new trader support service will be funded with a British government commitment of £200 million ($262 million, 222 million euros) and launch in September following contract tendering this month. The government said it had earmarked another £155m to develop technology to make the new support processes "fully digital and streamlined" The service will mean companies, already struggling under the strain of the pandemic, can avoid having to use complex government tax and customs systems directly. "It is a unique service that will ensure that businesses of all sizes can have import processes dealt with on their behalf, at no cost," Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said in a statement. The government also announced £300 million in funding for a programme to support "peace, prosperity and reconciliation projects on the island of Ireland". Northern Ireland saw three decades of sectarian violence between nationalists who favour being part of Ireland and Protestant unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain in the UK. The 1998 Good Friday Agreeement heralded a new era of peace, but politicians have warned that the border issue post Brexit could again raise tensions. jj/jh
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