UK plans law to break post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland

LONDON • Britain set out steps yesterday to try to break the deadlock with the European Union on trade with Northern Ireland, lining up a new law that would effectively override parts of a Brexit agreement and further inflame ties with Brussels.

In a statement to Parliament, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said planned legislation would ease the movement of goods, apply Britain's tax regime in Northern Ireland and hand London more say over the laws governing the province.

She repeatedly told lawmakers the legislation would not break international law and that London would press on with talks with Brussels to try to find a negotiated solution.

But despite warnings from Brussels over taking unilateral action, the new law would change parts of the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed with the bloc as part of the deal over Britain's quitting the EU.

European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said such action was "not acceptable" and that Brussels would respond with all measures at its disposal.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he thought a trade war was unlikely.

Mr Johnson agreed to the protocol in 2019 to allow Britain to leave the EU's single market and Customs union without controls being re-imposed on the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, vital to the 1998 Good Friday peace deal that ended three decades of violence.

By striking such a deal, he effectively agreed to a Customs border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom. Britain now says the protocol is unworkable, and months of talks with the EU have failed to find any solutions.

"I am announcing our intention to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make changes to the protocol," Ms Truss told Parliament to jeers from the opposition. "Our preference remains a negotiated solution with the EU and in parallel with the legislation being introduced, we remain open to further talks," she said.

She added that the government would pursue getting the legislation through both houses of Parliament regardless of how any future talks progressed with the EU. The legislation foresees a "green channel" for goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland and no farther.

On Monday, Mr Johnson said the British government needed an "insurance" option to be able to unilaterally override some post-Brexit trade rules because the protocol, as is, was threatening a hard-won peace in the British-ruled province.

REUTERS