UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss spoke on the phone with European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on Thursday to discuss progress in reaching an agreement on the post-Brexit trade arrangements between two parts of Ireland under the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2022) UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss spoke on the phone with European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on Thursday to discuss progress in reaching an agreement on the post-Brexit trade arrangements between two parts of Ireland under the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.
"The Foreign Secretary reiterated that the UK's proposals to fix the Protocol, including green and red channel arrangements, backed up by a bespoke data-sharing system, would ensure the removal of trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland while protecting the EU single market," the British Foreign Office said in a statement.
Truss pointed to "unacceptable" disruption to trade in Ireland which underprivileged people in Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the UK as a result of the EU's refusal to introduce new proposals to the negotiation. London believes that current EU proposals "would take us backwards, by creating more checks and paperwork," she said.
"The Foreign Secretary noted this with regret and said the situation in Northern Ireland is a matter of internal peace and security for the United Kingdom, and if the EU would not show the requisite flexibility to help solve those issues, then as a responsible government we would have no choice but to act," the statement read.
Sefcovic, in turn, released a statement following the call in which he warned the UK against any unilateral action on Northern Ireland.
"Unilateral action, effectively disapplying an international agreement such as the Protocol, is simply not acceptable. This would undermine trust between the EU and UK as well as compromise our ultimate objective - to protect the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement in all its dimensions, while ensuring legal certainty and predictability for the people and businesses in Northern Ireland," he said.
As part of the Brexit agreement that went into force in January 2021, there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but under the Protocol all goods and animal-based products coming from the rest of the British territories must be checked upon arrival to ensure their compatibility with EU sanitary regulations.
The UK government has argued that the Protocol is not working, as it causes delays and interruptions to goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and irritates unionists, who believe their place within the United Kingdom could be affected, thus threatening the so-called Good Friday Agreement that in 1998 put an end to 30 years of armed conflict in the island.
