Quelle surprise: EU in trade war threat

PM slams ‘gross over-reaction’ as Brussels vows not to re-negotiate the Ulster protocol

BORIS Johnson last night accused EU chiefs of a ‘gross over-reaction’ after they threatened a trade war over Brexit.

Brussels reacted angrily to new legislation that will allow ministers to override parts of the Brexit deal to prevent it driving a wedge between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said Brussels was urgently considering legal action against the UK, which sources said could come as soon as next week.

And he warned that the entire Brexit deal could be put at risk – raising the prospect of a damaging trade dispute involving tariffs and major border controls.

The Prime Minister said a trade war would be a ‘ gross, gross over-reaction’ to changes which are ‘relatively trivial in the grand scheme of things’.

He stressed: ‘All we’re trying to do is simplify things, to actually to remove the barriers to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

‘How perverse, how preposterous... to be introducing further restrictions on trade when all we’re trying to do is have some bureaucratic simplifications.’ He spoke as:

■ Allies of the PM warned that Labour and rebel Tories risked playing into the hands of the EU by opposing the legislation;

■ The Irish government said the proposals marked a ‘new low point’ in relations and accused the UK of ‘ breaking the law’; n The Democratic Unionist Party welcomed the proposals but said it needed to study the detail before deciding whether to resume powersharing in the province; n Downing Street said the measures would end the trade border in the Irish Sea by allowing firms to move goods to Northern Ireland without EU checks; n Sinn Fein described the plans as ‘utterly reckless’.

The new Northern Ireland Protocol Bill will give ministers powers to override parts of the original Brexit deal, including scrapping EU checks on goods traded between Britain and the province.

Downing Street acknowledged the legislation would allow ministers to break parts of the Brexit deal relating to Ulster, breaching an international treaty with the EU.

But in a statement last night the Government insisted the plan was permitted by international law because ministers have an overriding duty to protect the Good Friday peace agreement in Ulster.

The statement, a summary of legal advice from Attorney General Suella Braverman, cited the ‘ doctrine of necessity’ – a recognised principle in international law which allows states to ‘nonperform’ treaty duties if it is the only way to ‘safeguard an essential interest’.

It said the EU’s implementation of the protocol was causing a ‘diversion of trade and serious societal and economic difficulties’, undermining the peace process.

It added that the ‘genuinely exceptional situation’ in Northern Ireland justified immediate intervention.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told a cross-party meeting of MPs last night: ‘We are doing this legislation because we have to. The EU have said they’re not willing to change the protocol, which leaves us with no choice but to act.’

Both the EU and the White House have warned against taking unilateral action, along with some Tory MPs.

However, last night the US said proposed changes to the protocol would not be an impediment to potential America-UK trade talks in Boston later this month.

UK ministers said that, after 18 months of inconclusive talks with Brussels, they had no choice but to act.

Miss Truss said she was ‘very clear that we’re acting in line with the law’ and blamed the EU for the failure to reach a negotiated settlement. Mr Sefcovic declared that Brussels ‘will not re-negotiate the protocol’. In a thinly-veiled threat, he said the move ‘undermines the trust that is necessary’ for the Brexit trade deal to continue.

‘We’re trying to simplify things’