UK says it will pass post-Brexit trade law

LONDON — The British government dramatically escalated a fight with the European Union on Tuesday by saying it will pass a law to scrap parts of the trade treaty signed by the two sides less than two years ago.

Britain says its move to singlehandedly change the legally binding treaty — an apparent breach of international law — is an insurance policy in case it can’t reach agreement with the bloc to end a long-running dispute over post-Brexit trade rules.

The announcement drew a sharp response from the EU, which has long accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of trying to wriggle out of a deal that his government negotiated and signed as part of the U.K.’s exit in 2020. The spat raises the chances of a trade war between Britain and the 27-nation bloc that is — even after Brexit — its major economic partner.

“Unilateral actions contradicting an international agreement are not acceptable,” said EU Vice President Maros Sefcovic, the bloc’s top Brexit official.

Britain’s Conservative government says post-Brexit trade rules are hurting the economy and undermining peace in Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that shares a border with an EU member state.

When Britain left the bloc and its borderless free-trade zone, a deal was agreed to keep the Irish land border free of customs posts and other checks, because an open border is a key pillar of the peace process that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

Instead, to protect the EU’s single market, there are checks on some goods, such as meat and eggs, entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K.

The arrangement is opposed by British unionists in Northern Ireland, who say the new checks have put a burden on businesses and frayed the bonds between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. by creating a customs border in the Irish Sea.

The Democratic Unionist Party, Northern Ireland’s biggest unionist party, is blocking the formation of a power-sharing regional government in Belfast.