The government is to reimburse Northern Irish businesses if they are hit by tariffs due to a collapse in Brexit talks, Michael Gove has said. He revealed the plans after being criticised by MPs over Brexit arrangements for the region. “We want to make sure that in the event of there not being a free trade agreement of whatever kind with the EU that we are in a position to indemnify and reimburse companies for tariffs,” the minister for the Cabinet Office told the Northern Ireland affairs select committee. If there is no deal a unique arrangement for Northern Ireland kicks in, with EU tariffs payable on goods circulating within the region but rebates on all goods that do not cross into the Republic of Ireland. Secondary legislation would be required for the tariff arrangements but this would be put in place before January, Gove told the committee. Business leaders described the move as “significant” but expressed concern about the lack of detail. “What paperwork would be needed? How long would it be for reimbursement as that is a huge cashflow problem?” said Aodhán Connolly, the director of the Northern Ireland retail consortium. He also said the EU state-aid rules would make the scheme problematic for big companies. Importers of cars, for example, would face a 10% additional levy on purchases from Nissan in Great Britain without any knowledge of when they could get a rebate. Further, the state aid rules would prevent them from receiving anything more than €200,000 over three years, limiting the number of cars they could buy in from Great Britain. Unusually for Gove, a cabinet minister renowned for his capacity for detail, little flesh was added to the bones of the protocol arrangements he recently published as part of a “command paper”. He was unable to answer repeated questions by the Labour MP Hilary Benn about whether entry summary declaration forms would be needed for Great British businesses selling into Northern Ireland. These are currently needed for goods brought into the UK from outside the EU. Gove conceded that new safety and security information would be needed but the operational detail would not be revealed until later in the summer. Businesses, unions and farmers at an earlier Labour webinar expressed their frustration with the government’s failure to provide greater detail. Victor Chestnutt, the deputy president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union, said planning for January was “like walking out into the mist, into the fog”. The committee chairman, Simon Hoare, said the apparent “open skies” thinking was risky. “Six months out, [it] seems to be playing with fire,” said the Conservative MP for North Dorset. He added that trying to get firm information out of Gove and the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, made him feel like “Alice through the looking glass [trying to divine] what words mean”.