Britain and EU announce deal to manage post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland

  • On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the scrapping of all "law breaking" clauses from the Brexit legislation, in an effort to revive relations between London and Brussels.
  • The United Kingdom and the European Union stated that they had agreed a deal on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.
Updated 08 Dec, 2020

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the scrapping of all "law breaking" clauses from the Brexit legislation, in an effort to revive relations between London and Brussels.

The United Kingdom and the European Union stated that they had agreed a deal on the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol, which was a part of Britain's controversial withdrawal treaty, in an effort to facilitate and govern future trade between mainland Britain and the region.

Despite the fact that the Northern Ireland deal is not a direct part of the difficult negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union, it would markedly improve the atmosphere around these negotiations - perhaps even indicating an intention from both sides to make concessions.

This diplomatic breakthrough allowed Prime Minister Johnson to announce that he would be deleting clauses from the legislation, which allowed British ministers to breach the treaty and subsequently breaking international law. These contentious clauses will be removed from the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill, while the government also announced that it would not be introducing similar clauses to a separate taxation bill.

These aforementioned clauses in the legislation were billed by Prime Minister Johnson as a "safety net" to ensure the smooth flow of trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, bypassing the European Union's customs code; drawing condemnation from Brussels.

As talks continue to progress, the coming days are going to be crucial in determining the nature of a post-Brexit economy.

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