Marks & Spencer : UK retail welcomes government call for extended Northern Ireland grace period

LONDON (Reuters) - The lobby group that represents the British retail sector on Tuesday welcomed a call from the UK government for the European Union to extend a post-Brexit grace period for Northern Ireland.

British senior minister Michael Gove said there were serious problems with the post-Brexit arrangements for trade with Northern Ireland and called for an extension of the grace periods currently relaxing some rules.

"We are pleased the government has recognised the challenge facing supermarkets and other retailers operating in Northern Ireland," said Andrew Opie, trade policy advisor at the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

The BRC's Northern Ireland director Aodhán Connolly also welcomed the move.

"Michael Gove is absolutely right - we do need an extension to the grace period to ensure that hard-pressed NI families are not affected by further disruption in the availability of goods," he said.

(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Costas Pitas)