Dr. Anthony Soares:

I would like to underline what Mr. Gough has just said on the initial findings of a small piece of research. We are looking at North-South flows in terms of products, clients, and employees in the agrifood sector in four counties and we are looking at micro businesses, farmers, retailers, restaurants and some hotels. On the issue of currency differentials, very few of them mentioned this as a problem. In fact, in response to the question on whether the currency differential is a problem, they have said that it is not. In fact, they mentioned that some of the businesses they deal with are so used to the currency differentials that they invoice them in the appropriate currency that will minimise the disruption to the buyer. Farmers were the one exception and they mentioned the currency more frequently, although it still was not something they brought up as a major issue.

On the question of whether smaller businesses were looking for buyers on the other side of the Border, I can give an example of a business with an export licence which was asked if it exported to the other side of the Border and its response was, "No, we do not go looking for them and they do not come looking for us". They had some very good reasons for their business as they were happy with the market they had and they did not really wish to expand to the other side of the Border. They thought trading with the other side of the Border would complicate matters as they would have to deal with two sets of regulations and, therefore, they would rather stay within the one jurisdiction. Every now and again there was the case that the grass was greener on the other side, that things were done better and that business was better on the other side, but one would hear the same response if one questioned people on the other side of the Border. People in the South think the North has it better. If one is in the North, the southern business sector has it better. The currency differentials did not come up as a major issue.