By Joshua Manning • Updated: 25 Apr 2022 • 20:12
UK Government angers EU with possible suspension of Northern Ireland's post-Brexit trading deal
A UK Government Minister has warned that the UK Government could potentially issue a suspension of the post-Brexit EU trade deals made by Northern Ireland, without Northern Ireland’s consent. The news which will undoubtedly anger the European Union, has been announced in less than two weeks before the election at the Northern Ireland Assembly which will take place on May 5.
Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns told LBC radio: “As far back as last July the Prime Minister said that we believed that the threshold for triggering Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol had been reached. There is significant societal disruption in Northern Ireland due to the way that the protocol is being implemented. I hope Brussels are listening to this conversation and other conversations. I hope they will come back to the table constructively to allow us to change the protocol to make it work in the way it was intended.”
“If they don’t hear that, then the Government reserves the right, as we have always said, as laid down in the protocol, to take remedial action”, he stated.
The shadow Northern Ireland Secretary told Sky News: “This is absolutely astonishing and incredibly damaging.
“Boris Johnson negotiated, his team drafted the Northern Ireland Protocol; they presented it to the EU, they negotiated it into the deal. It doesn’t work as well as it can do, that’s why the Labour policy is, you build on it – we can improve the protocol, we can smooth it, and we can do so without breaking the law and breaking our international treaty we signed with the EU.
“If we just recklessly pull out of it unilaterally, how will any other country in the world sign a deal with us and think that we will honour it? How will Prime Minister Modi react today when Boris Johnson asks for a trade deal if he is pulling out unilaterally of the last trade deal he signed?”
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Originally from the UK, Joshua is based on the Costa Blanca and is a web reporter for the Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.
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