The United Kingdom could this Monday threaten to exempt itself from certain terms of the framework of the agreement, since Brexit, trades with Northern Ireland, according to a Reuters report. David Frost, Minister responsible for Brexit, will use his speech to deliver at the annual convention of the British Conservative Party in Manchester, north of England, to ask the European Union (EU) to negotiate an amicable solution to the problems raised by the agreement . according to a party statement. It warns that a ‘tweak’ will not solve the basic problems of the protocol “, specifies the press release.

Therefore, the government of Boris Johnson could, in the coming weeks, activate Article 16 of the Brexit agreement. This article allows each of the two parties to take unilateral action if they consider that the protocol has serious consequences. According to excerpts from his speech, David Frost will declare on Monday that the threshold justifying the invocation of this article has been reached.

Recurring problem

Boris Johnson’s government has been asking the European Union for several months to renegotiate the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which governs trade relations between Great Britain and the British province of Northern Ireland, bordering the Republic of Ireland. EU. The EU has refused to negotiate further.

The protocol, which is part of the agreement governing the UK’s exit from the European Union, created a de facto customs border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to preserve the free movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Since Brexit, London has already unilaterally frozen the application of certain elements of the Northern Irish protocol contained in the Brexit agreement, in particular the establishment of certain customs controls on goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, due to interruptions caused in the supply of the province, particularly in meat.