Truss puts plans to trigger Article 16 on ice over Ukraine

Minister to offer Northern Irish firms economic aid as she suspends protocol changes because of crisis

LIZ TRUSS has set out plans to put the potential triggering of Article 16 on hold because of the Ukraine crisis and help Northern Ireland businesses with an “economic stimulus” package, including tax cuts, instead.

The Foreign Secretary has written to Boris Johnson outlining a proposal to boost trade between Britain and Northern Ireland with tax breaks and a “unilateral green lane” allowing goods that would remain in the UK to cross the Irish sea with minimal paperwork.

The plan is seen by Ms Truss as a way to avoid a major confrontation with the European Union at a time when she is helping to coordinate a united international response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But it is likely to provoke fury among Brexiteers who fear that the Government’s resolve to overhaul the Northern Ireland protocol is slipping.

Yesterday, Boris Johnson told Micheal Martin, the Irish prime minister, that he hoped “the same spirit of cooperation that had characterised the UK/EU relationship in respect of Ukraine could also be applied to resolving the issues with the protocol”.

At a meeting in London, Mr Johnson “reiterated the need to make significant changes to the Northern Ireland protocol in order to protect peace and stability in Northern Ireland”, said No10.

Earlier this month, Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister, warned that it would be “risible” to shelve the triggering of Article 16 until later this year because of the war in Ukraine.

An ally of Ms Truss said: “Liz’s top priority in all of this is defending peace and stability in Northern Ireland and protecting the Union. The EU aren’t showing enough pragmatism, so she’s exploring unilateral measures to ease the pressures on the ground.

“Article 16 remains very much on the table – she is 100 per cent prepared to use it – but it’s right we look at other measures like tax breaks and unilateral green lane measures.”

Ms Truss’s letter to Mr Johnson is understood to have set out two possible options – collapsing ongoing negotiations and triggering Article 16 now; or holding off using the safeguard clause and instead deploying an economic stimulus package to help firms losing out due to the implementation of the protocol. The talks with Maros Sefcovic, Ms Truss’s EU opposite number, would continue as part of this plan, with Article 16 being held in reserve.

The clause allows either side to take unilateral “safeguard measures” if the protocol causes “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.

The UK insists that the legal threshold for triggering the clause was met months ago and Ms Truss used a Jan 9 article in this newspaper to insist she would use the mechanism if it became necessary “to ease acute problems”.

Ms Truss, who took over the role of post-Brexit negotiator from Lord Frost in December, has since expressed private frustration at EU intransigence.

But some Brexiteers fear that she does not have the “bandwidth” to be an effective negotiator on the protocol at the same time as working on the response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. Last week Ms Truss was in the US for talks with Antony Blinken, the

‘Defend the integrity of NI, unite its communities, restore political confidence and end trade distortions’

Secretary of State, and Jake Sullivan, the National Security Advisor.

Last night a Conservative source claimed: “The Foreign Secretary has been sucked in by the Remainer lobby’s propaganda. We should be using the Article 16 safeguards to defend the integrity of Northern Ireland, unite its communities, restore political confidence and end trade distortions.”