UK Must Implement All Terms Of Brexit Withdrawal Agreement To Ensure Trade Deal - Dublin

UK Must Implement All Terms of Brexit Withdrawal Agreement to Ensure Trade Deal - Dublin

The United Kingdom must implement all the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, signed with the European Union, such as ensuring EU checks on goods entering Northern Ireland, to ensure that a trade deal can be signed between London and Brussels before the transition period ends at the end of this year, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney said on Tuesday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th February, 2020) The United Kingdom must implement all the terms of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, signed with the European Union, such as ensuring EU checks on goods entering Northern Ireland, to ensure that a trade deal can be signed between London and Brussels before the transition period ends at the end of this year, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney said on Tuesday.

Coveney is in Brussels for a crucial General Affairs Council (GAC) meeting and Irish officials have also held talks with the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. The minister stated that the EU's negotiating mandate has been agreed in principle, and will be confirmed by the union's leaders this coming week.

"We had a very good meeting with Michel Barnier as we always do. What's clear now I think is that the EU is ready to open up formal negotiations next week. We have a settled text now, as of yesterday, that I think will be confirmed at the GAC today, and then obviously taken on board and confirmed by EU leaders later on this week," Coveney told reporters.

The Irish minister confirmed that negotiations were both on track and on time, but also gave a warning to the UK that they must implement all terms of the withdrawal agreement signed with the EU. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the UK's leading negotiator with the EU David Frost is attempting to find a way around proposed EU customs checks on goods entering Northern Ireland.

As per the Irish protocol, also called the "backstop" when it was agreed by ex-prime minister Theresa May, the UK agreed for a system of checks and controls for goods entering Northern Ireland that arrive from Scotland, Wales or England.

Coveney indicated that the implementation of these checks will be vital to building good faith and trust between London and Brussels that will also facilitate the signing of a wide-ranging trade deal before December 31, the end of the transition period.

"If there is no progress on the infrastructure needed to implement the Irish protocol as part of the withdrawal agreement in next few months, then I think that is going to be a very worrying signal for whether or not it is going to be possible to conclude something sensible before the end of the year," the minister remarked.

The United Kingdom officially left the European Union on January 31, completing a protracted three and a half year process that began with the Brexit referendum in June 2016. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party secured a comprehensive victory in December's general election on the promise to "get Brexit done."