Northern Ireland Unionists are resisting calls from the Social Democratic and Labour Party for all-Ireland bodies for investment promotion, trade, tourism and European Union aid policy.
Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon said such institutions were supported by businesses throughout the north and the south and had economic logic.
He warned that planned devolution of powers to the province’s new assembly in February could be postponed unless a cross-border co-operation pact with the Republic could be brokered.
Financial Times 01/12/98 page 11
