The Northern Ireland Protocol explained

UK government to propose scrapping parts of the post-Brexit plans for trade

LONDON - The United Kingdom (UK) attorney general has received legal advice saying that it would be lawful for Britain to override parts of the post-Brexit treaty for Northern Ireland.

Suella Braverman, who is the government’s chief law officer, said the legal situation had changed because the agreement between the UK and EU is causing social unrest.

This means there could now be new legislation scrapping checks on goods going from Britain to Northern Ireland, said the BBC, in the latest chapter of Britain’s drawn out and controversial exit from the European Union.

What is the Northern Ireland Protocol?

The Northern Ireland Protocol was agreed as part of the Brexit deal signed by Boris Johnson in December 2020 and is designed to protect the Good Friday Agreement by avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The protocol, which came into force in January 2021, works by keeping Northern Ireland inside the EU’s single market for goods. Therefore, Northern Ireland continues to follow some EU laws and there are new checks and paperwork for goods, which are imported into Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Some goods, including chilled meats and plants, were technically banned under the deal because such products cannot be imported into the EU from outside the bloc.

What is wrong with it?

The protocol is “threatening to derail the new Stormont power-sharing government”, said The Guardian, “after the Democratic Unionist party refused to appoint new ministers until the checks on the Irish Sea border on goods coming into Northern Ireland from Great Britain were scrapped”.

Following the threats by unionists to boycott power-sharing in the province until the deal was reformed, Johnson said that the protocol was “not sustainable in its current form”.

Aside from the politics, the DUP argues that it is damaging Northern Ireland's economy and is causing major disruption for businesses.

What is the UK proposing?

Initially, a draft bill to address the issue was thought to be “intended to grant ministers the power in principle to override the treaty” but not in practice, said The Guardian. However, the bill currently being proposed “would go further than expected and scrap parts of the protocol”, the paper added.

Officials working for Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, have drawn up draft legislation that would unilaterally remove the need for all checks on goods being sent from Britain for use in Northern Ireland.

It would also allow businesses in the province to disregard EU rules and regulations and take away the power of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to rule on issues relating to Northern Ireland.

Ministers argue that a unilateral move would be in keeping with Article 16 of the protocol, said The Times, “which allows either side to suspend parts of the agreement if they are leading to serious ‘economic, societal or environmental difficulties’”.

What does the EU want?

The EU acknowledges that there are problems with the protocol. The bloc has proposed a more limited set of exemptions and changes than those demanded by Britain.

It suggests changing EU law to allow medicines made in Britain to continue to be supplied to Northern Ireland and addressing the ban on the export of sausages to Northern Ireland by allowing products that play a part in the “national identity” of communities there.

However, the EU insists that the ECJ must still “ultimately police” the Northern Ireland Protocol and it says there should be no blanket exemptions on checks in the Irish Sea.

Meanwhile, the EU wants Britain to stop threatening to abandon the agreement. Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said: “No one should unilaterally scrap or break or in any way change the arrangement we agreed on together”, the Independent reported. And Alexander De Croo, the Belgian prime minister, warned: “Don’t touch this, this is something we agreed on.”

What will happen next?

UK ministers have said that they want to give talks with the EU “one last chance” to agree a compromise but there are fears that the tensions could lead to a trade war between Britain and the EU.

That could mean that UK exports could be hit by tariffs imposed by Brussels, which could even terminate the free trade deal agreed after Brexit.

Treasury officials told the Financial Times that a trade war could worsen the cost-of-living crisis, particularly if measures were imposed during the conflict in Ukraine.

“If you have a trade war, that will have an impact on the economy, especially when you have an actual war going on in Europe,” said an unnamed official.