UK extends Irish trade grace period

The EU condemns the Government’s unilateral decision, saying that it breaches international law

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THE Government has confirmed that it will extend the grace period for supermarkets and their suppliers to adapt to post-brexit trade by five months.

Boris Johnson will act unilaterally to extend the March 31 deadline agreed with the EU, in a significant escalation of tension with Brussels.

In a written statement published yesterday, Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, said that suppliers moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland would not be required to fill out the extra paperwork for agrifoods when the deadline expires. Mr Johnson told MPS: “The position of Northern Ireland within the UK internal market is rock solid and guaranteed ... We leave nothing off the table in order to ensure we get this right.”

The move prompted a row with the EU, which is jointly responsible for the Northern Ireland Protocol governing trade and new border checks in the province.

The European Commission said the EU had “strong concerns” over the unilateral move because “this amounts to a violation of the relevant substantive provisions of the Protocol on Ireland/ Northern Ireland and the good faith obligation under the Withdrawal Agreement”.

An EU diplomat said that Britain had chosen confrontation as its approach to diplomacy. “Because why on Earth would you want to respect an agreement you negotiated yourself ? And why on Earth would you want to settle difficult issues in an amicable way if you can also take a confrontational approach?”

The UK will extend the deadline to October while continuing to try to secure agreement with the European Commission for a longer extension, as requested by Michael Gove.

The Daily Telegraph also understands that the UK intends to pursue other unilateral measures this week, including extending the grace period for parcel couriers and solving issues with importing plants, vegetables and agricultural machinery with British soil on them.

The UK is in discussions with the European Commission over its demands to extend grace periods for supermarkets, chilled meats, medicines and parcels until January 2023.

It hopes to use the extra time to find permanent solutions to the problems experienced by traders at the border. These issues are supposed to be agreed through the joint committee, chaired by Lord Frost, the minister in charge of EU future relations, and his Brussels counterpart, Maros Sefcovic.

“This is the second time that the UK government is set to breach international law,” Mr Sefcovic said, referring to earlier UK threats to override the Withdrawal Agreement.

Another EU diplomat said: “Frost is acting as we expected. Under the agreement, a grace period can only be agreed by both sides. If it’s not, it’s not a grace period but a violation of the treaty.”

Whitehall sources denied it was a breach of the protocol, adding that the measures were necessary to avoid a “cliff edge” for businesses.

Lord Frost spoke with Mr Sefcovic last night and informed him that the measures taken yesterday were “temporary

technical steps” and were “precedented in other trade arrangements”.

A government spokesman said: “He underlined that these were needed for operational reasons and were the minimum necessary steps to allow time for discussions to continue without [causing] disruption in Northern Ireland.”

Aodhán Connolly, the director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, said that businesses welcomed the extensions even if they were unilateral. He said they would allow retailers to continue giving Northern Irish households choice and affordability but called on both sides to agree a solution.

Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, said he had told Lord Frost and Mr Lewis of his disappointment. “A unilateral announcement is deeply unhelpful to building the relationship of trust and partnership that is central to the implementation of the protocol.”

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