Britain unveils radical overhaul of EU trade deal in Northern Ireland
The UK government on Tuesday announced its intention to drastically overhaul post-brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland, arguing the plan was needed to end political paralysis in the territory but risking a trade war with the EU.
The government said it would introduce legislation reforming the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol “in the coming weeks” — unless Brussels caves on its insistence that the pact cannot be rewritten.
The protocol was agreed as part of Britain’s Brexit divorce deal with the European Union, recognising Northern Ireland’s status as a fragile, post-conflict territory that shared the UK’S new land border with an EU member.
Its requirement for checks on goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales has infuriated prouk unionists in Northern Ireland. They claim the protocol is undermining their place within the UK and are refusing to join a new postelection power-sharing government in Belfast. The UK plan would scrap most of the checks, but the government denied it was trashing international law by effectively abrogating a key element of the Brexit deal agreed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2019.
“I think the higher duty of the UK government in international law is to the (1998) Good Friday Agreement and the peace process,” Johnson told reporters.
“We don’t want to nix it (the protocol), we want to fix it, and we will work with our EU partners to do it,” he said.
But the EU issued no hint that renegotiating the protocol was in the offing, after warning that any UK violation of the Brexit pact could see it hit back with swingeing tariffs.
“The protocol is an international agreement signed by the EU and the UK. Unilateral actions contradicting an international agreement are not acceptable,” European Commission Vice-president
I think the higher duty of the UK government in international law is to the (1998) Good Friday Agreement and the peace process. We don’t want to nix it (the protocol), we want to fix it, and we will work with our EU partners to do it,
Boris Johnson, UK Prime Minister
Maros Sefcovic said. The UK plan “raises significant concerns”, he added, warning that the EU “will need to respond with all measures at its disposal” if London goes ahead. — afp