• Ar
  • Es
Al Mayadeen English

Slogan

  • News
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Arts&Culture
    • Health
    • Miscellaneous
    • Technology
    • Environment
  • Articles
    • Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Blog
    • Feature
  • Videos
  • Infographs
  • In Pictures
  • • LIVE
News
  • Politics
  • Economy
  • Sports
  • Arts&Culture
  • Health
  • Miscellaneous
  • Technology
  • Environment
Articles
  • Opinion
  • Analysis
  • Blog
  • Feature
Videos
Infographs
In Pictures
  1. Home
  2. News
  3. Europe
  4. EU threatens trade war if UK rewrites N. Ireland protocol
Europe

EU threatens trade war if UK rewrites N. Ireland protocol

  • By Al Mayadeen English
  • Source: Agencies
  • 18 May 2022 09:58
  • 1 Shares

As Liz Truss lays out her strategy for transformation, Brussels threatens to respond with "all measures at its disposal."

  • EU threatens trade war isf UK rewrites Norther Ireland protocol
    UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss

The European Commission has raised the prospect of a trade war with the United Kingdom, promising to retaliate with "all measures at its disposal" if Liz Truss goes forward with her plan to alter the Northern Ireland protocol.

On Tuesday, the foreign secretary announced intentions to introduce legislation to amend the protocol, including the elimination of all inspections on goods traveling from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland that are not headed for the Republic of Ireland.

Read more: PM Johnson using N.Ireland against EU: Sinn Fein leader

 

Truss stated that the UK still had hopes of achieving an agreement with the EU and claimed it worked "tirelessly" to do so.

According to Truss, the current protocol threatens the Belfast agreement, referring to it as "under strain."

“To respond to the very grave and serious situation in Northern Ireland we are clear that there is a necessity to act to ensure the institutions can be restored as soon as possible,” Truss stated.

Part of the government's purpose is to appease the Democratic Unionist Party, which has refused to form a power-sharing administration with leading party Sinn Féin at Stormont unless the protocol is changed.

Truss' comment, according to the DUP's Westminster leader, is “a welcome if overdue step that is a significant move towards addressing the problems created by the protocol, and getting power-sharing, based upon a cross-community consensus, up and running again.”

His party would want to see legislation proceed “in days and weeks, not months,” he added.

Meanwhile, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, a protocol co-architect, told a Co-operation Ireland business event in Dublin that the move was "breeding mistrust in EU capitals."

Truss demanded that Maro Sefcovic, the EU's senior official in charge of UK relations, be given a new negotiating mandate that would allow the convention to be altered. However, in response to Truss's comments, Sefcovic issued a veiled warning that the UK may lose its position.

Contradicting an international agreement

Sefcovic, a European Commission vice-president in charge of protocol negotiations, said Truss' suggestions posed “significant concerns”, adding: “Unilateral actions contradicting an international agreement are not acceptable.”

In a statement, he said, “Should the UK decide to move ahead with a bill disapplying constitutive elements of the protocol as announced today by the UK government, the EU will need to respond with all measures at its disposal."

According to Catherine Barnard, an EU law scholar at the University of Cambridge, the EU may slap UK products with tariffs within seven days of legal action or freeze the whole trade pact signed with Boris Johnson in 2020, two of three immediate weapons at its disposal.

Legal action against the UK, which was suspended as a goodwill gesture last year, would very certainly be resumed.

Truss said the new law will be published within weeks, and that it would include proposals to establish a "green channel" that would enable products to be exported from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland without being checked as long as they were not bound for the Republic of Ireland.

The law would also allow the United Kingdom to control taxation and expenditure in Northern Ireland. Truss cited the chancellor's recent decision to reduce VAT on green energy projects, which she said he could not execute in Northern Ireland.

According to Brussels sources, no decisions on how to respond if Truss does pass the legislation, and the EU hopes the UK would return to the bargaining table to address modifications presented by the EU. If the government introduces the legislation, it was envisaged that Brussels would issue a formal warning and initiate a process to decide on punitive actions.

EU officials think the UK never truly considered Sefcovic's far-reaching suggestions to reduce customs and administrative procedures last October.

Truss, though, dismissed these issues in the Commons. "Their current proposals are not able to address the fundamental concerns. In fact, it is our assessment that they would go backward from the situation we have today with the standstill," she added.

According to EU officials, a change in mandate would require unanimous approval from all member states. They stated that there was no inclination to amend Sefcovic's mission in order to allow for broad modifications to the protocol, which Truss regarded as a "fundamental issue." The senior EU ambassador shot down this notion, adding, “The EU doesn’t have a mandate, the protocol is the mandate."

  • Britain
  • Liz Truss
  • Northern Ireland
  • Ireland
  • Brussels
  • United Kingdom
  • European Union

Trending Now

All
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Jeffrey Donaldson speaks at the Stormont Parliament Buildings in Belfast, Northern Ireland June 13, 2022 (Reuters)

UK N. Ireland Secretary to call snap assembly election within 12 weeks

Most Read

The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling

The Middle East Stabilises, Against the Backdrop of a Great Unravelling

  • Analysis
  • 28 May
In this image released by the Italian firefighters, a helicopter searches for missing passengers after a tourist boat capsized in a storm on Italy's Lago Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region, May 28, 2023 (AP)

Top Israeli intelligence official dead in Italy: Israeli media

  • Europe
  • 29 May
US linguist Noam Chomsky, who was among 550 academics who signed the petition calling on Glasgow University to respect free speech (AFP)

Chomsky: EU will deindustrialize if it abides by US-run world order

  • Europe
  • 31 May
Saudi Arabia's Hawiyah Natural Gas Liquids Recovery Plant which is operated by ARAMCO. (AP)

Tensions between Riyadh and Moscow on the rise due to oil prices: WSJ

  • MENA
  • 28 May

Read this

All
Pop artist Andy Warhol in New York, the United States, 1976 (AP)
US & Canada

Art dealer sentenced to 25 months for selling fake Andy Warhol works

  • 1 Jun
Former President Donald Trump watches the first round of the LIV Golf Tournament at Trump National Golf Club, Friday, May 26, 2023, in Sterling, Va. (AP)
US & Canada

New tape leaked of Trump speaking of classified information: CNN

  • 1 Jun
Hamid Nouri
MENA

Hamid Nouri breaks record for solitary confinement in Sweden

  • 1 Jun
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listens at a news conference after the House passed the debt ceiling bill at the Capitol in Washington, May 31, 2023 (AP)
US & Canada

Debt ceiling bill overwhelmingly passes US House

  • 1 Jun
Al Mayadeen English

Al Mayadeen is an Arab Independent Media Satellite Channel.

All Rights Reserved

  • Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Authors
Android
iOS