evidence: This led to the adoption of the current Northern Ireland protocol, whose main objective is to avoid a hard border and protect the Good Friday agreement. To do that, Northern Ireland remains legally within the UK customs territory. Despite this, EU customs legislation and a significant part of the free movement of goods continue to apply to the region, as do EU law provisions concerning VAT and excise. In practice, this hybrid regime means that trade between the two shores of the Irish Sea is not frictionless any more – especially for goods that move from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.