UK pushes for trade talks to solve North Ireland border issue

DUBLIN: British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Friday called on Brussels to move on to post-Brexit trade talks to solve the Irish border issue, despite a warning from the EU that London still had work to do.

"The issues of the Northern Irish border and how it works are intellectually, intimately bound up with the questions of the customs union, the single market, Britain's relationship with those.

"Those questions have been reserved by the (European) Commission for study in stage two of the negotiations. I think logically now is the time to proceed to stage two," Johnson said at a Dublin press conference with his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney.

Deciding the future of Britain's only land border with the European Union has been a top priority for Brussels, with all sides determined to avoid a return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

"We need to get on with this, but our view is that you can only really crack the problem in the context of a wider understanding of how the new customs arrangements are going to work," said Johnson.