Northern Ireland ordered a halt to checks on goods coming into the region’s ports, risking further turmoil in Brexit negotiations.
Post-Brexit checks brought in since the end of 2020 were to cease at midnight on Wednesday, according to an order from Northern Ireland Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots.
Northern Ireland was effectively kept in the European Union’s single market following the U.K.’s departure from the bloc under an agreement designed to avoid creating a hard border on the island of Ireland. As a result, goods moving into the region from the rest of the U.K. are subject to customs checks.
“I have now issued a formal instruction to my permanent secretary to halt all checks that were not in place on December 31, 2020 from midnight tonight,” said Poots, former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.
The move risks further damaging relations between the U.K. and EU as the two sides conduct delicate negotiations over changes to their post-Brexit settlement. Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will meet European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic for further talks on Thursday.
A decision to stop all checks on goods coming across the Irish sea is “effectively a breach of international law,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. “The protocol is part of international agreement. It was agreed and ratified by the U.K. and the EU and its implementation is not only part of an international treaty but it’s part of international law.”
“It’s essentially playing politics with legal obligations,” he added.
Britain’s foot-dragging on implementing the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, such as by unilaterally and indefinitely refusing to carry out obligations such as health checks on food products crossing the Irish Sea, has soured relations with the EU and prompted criticisms that the U.K. is breaching the Brexit agreement.
Poots said he intends to prepare a paper for consideration by the regional government’s executive, whose approval is required in order for the checks to continue.
“The Minister has received Senior Counsel advice and has issued an instruction on that basis,” said a spokesman for the Northern Irish Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs.
Asked if he would override Poots and reinstate the checks, the U.K. government’s Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the issue was a matter for Stormont and the decision was “within their legal remit.”
“The minister is reacting to what he says is a problem in terms of allowing goods into Northern Ireland,” Lewis said on ITV’s “Peston” program. “This is an outworking, a manifestation of the way that the EU have insisted on seeing the protocol implemented.”
SOURCE: Bloomberg
IMAGE SOURCE: Pixabay
