LONDON, Jan. 8 (Reuters) – The UK is set to implement unilateral measures to suspend customs controls on goods destined for Northern Ireland, UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss said on Saturday.
Liz Truss is due to resume talks with Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission, next week to resolve the difficulties over trade relations between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a British province which shares a land border with the Ireland, a member country of the European Union.
Britain and the EU have agreed that Northern Ireland will remain in the single European market for foreign exchange of goods, which means that its exports to the rest of the EU are not subject to customs controls or tariffs. and are not subject to special formalities.
This arrangement, which creates a de facto border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Irish Sea, preserves the single European market while allowing North Irish trade to enjoy the advantages of both worlds.
However, tensions have arisen over the practical application of this agreement, in particular with regard to goods destined to remain in Northern Ireland, as well as over the authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
“I hope that the negotiations are successful, but if we have to resort to certain clauses like article 16, I will do it,” Liz Truss wrote in the British newspaper The Telegraph.
“An agreement must be found,” she said before adding: “I will not sign anything that prevents the people of Northern Ireland from benefiting from the same tax and spending practices as the rest of the United Kingdom, or which ensures that goods circulating in our own country are still subject to checks “.
Article 16 of the Northern Irish Protocol, which is part of Britain’s exit agreement from the European Union, allows either party to take unilateral action if it considers this protocol to have serious consequences.
Liz Truss became Britain’s chief negotiator with the European Union on the Northern Irish protocol following the resignation of Brexit Minister David Frost last December.
(Report David Milliken; French version Camille Raynaud)