British foreign minister Liz Truss has told officials to be ready to trigger a suspension of parts of the Brexit trade deal to force the European Union into a deal on arrangements governing Northern Ireland, the Times reported on Thursday.
Britain and the EU have been trying for months to solve an impasse over the Northern Ireland protocol, the post-Brexit trading rules for the British province which London says are unworkable.
Citing unnamed sources, the Times said Truss, who now leads the British negotiating team, had lost faith in the current talks, and she wanted to force a settlement before elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly in May.
To do that, she wants Prime Minister Boris Johnson to warn the European Commission that Britain would trigger a suspension of parts of the Brexit divorce deal through the so-called Article 16 before then, the paper reported sources as saying.
The foreign ministry declined to comment.
To avoid politically contentious border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland, Britain and the EU agreed Northern Ireland would effectively remain within the EU’s customs union for goods, with checks taking place on goods moving between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland instead.
However, there has been friction about how this applies in practice – especially for goods intended to remain within Northern Ireland – as well as over the arbitration role of the EU’s European Court of Justice.
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Article 16 of the Brexit divorce deal allows either side to unilaterally decide to stop implementing parts of the Northern Ireland protocol if there are substantial practical problems or trade diversions.
Last week, the Telegraph newspaper reported that Truss had put on hold any plans to trigger Article 16 because of the Ukraine crisis.
However the Times reported a source had said while it was not an “ideal” time to provoke a major diplomatic row with the EU, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was prepared to do it, and was more hardline on the issue than Truss.
