British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Commission VP Maros Sefcovic held virtual talks on Monday hoping to progress an agreement on goods trade in Northern Ireland (NI), to resolve an impasse created by Brexit, Britain’s departure from the EU.
The two ministers had reached an agreement last week in which the U.K. would permit the EU real-time access to trade data across the Irish Sea, which separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. The U.K. is hoping to wrap up a deal for the region by April. Last week’s trade database deal is connected to a 2022 U.K. proposal, which involves a green lane for goods with a final destination of NI and a red lane for goods heading to Ireland (i.e., the EU). Another issue between the parties is the extent of the authority of the European Courts of Justice.
In Monday’s talks, the Ministers committed to “protect both Northern Ireland’s place in the U.K.’s internal market and the integrity of the EU’s Single Market” as per a joint statement issued by the governments. Both sides have, at least officially, tried to refrain from providing a blow-by-blow account. The joint statement said they had agreed to continue collaborating on the scoping exercise for potential solutions.
The 2019 trading ‘protocol’, allows NI to continue in the EU Single Market, thereby avoiding a customs border between NI and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU. As a consequence, goods arriving from Great Britain (i.e., the rest of the U.K.) are checked at the ports in NI, creating a political untenable situation for the U.K.
NI’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from a power sharing agreement last year over the protocol, leaving the region without a functioning executive since February last year.
The problem has ramifications beyond the EU and the U.K. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had told U.S. President Joe Biden in November that a deal would be reached on the NI protocol, by April 10, the 25th anniversary of the Northern Ireland peace treaty, the Good Friday Agreement. The U.S. has indicated that any post-Brexit U.S.-U.K. trade deal would be contingent on the continued absence of a hard border between NI and the Republic of Ireland and respect for the Good Friday Agreement.
