Ongoing EU-UK tiff over Northern Ireland protocol

Saeed Pourreza

Press TV, London

It was supposed to ensure seamless trade between the UK and the EU following Brexit, but the Northern Ireland protocol, has become a problem itself, or has it?

Negotiated in 2019, the protocol was aimed at avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland still in the EU’s single market, and EU member- republic of Ireland. Instead it’s created a regulatory border in the Irish Sea which acts as a de facto EU-UK frontier.

Now, British goods entering Northern Ireland are subject to EU checks and customs regulations. While some have disliked the protocol from day one, others have found it beneficial. That small minority, are elements in the loyalist or unionist community in Northern Ireland, people who wish their country to remain part of the UK. They feel they’ve been cut off from the mainland.

Before becoming prime minister, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had told pro-UK parties that he didn’t want to see Northern Ireland left abandoned by a border in the sea. There will not be tariffs or checks on goods coming from GB to here that are not going on to Ireland.

That assurance fell by the wayside. A sense of betrayal prevailed. Protests ensued. To the UK government that meant changing the goal posts. A fact only admitted after the UK left the EU. The EU rejected any re-negotiation of the deal. Some experts believe the government must have known about the problems ahead from Day 1 of Brexit, calling into question the UK’s credibility as an international trading partner.

Another bone of contention, the UK government’s demand to remove the EU’s legal oversight role as part of the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying as long as the role of European Court of Justice continues the protocol will never survive. But in early December, Prime Minister Jonson’s conservative government reluctantly dropped that demand at a time when it would appear the majority of people in Northern Ireland want an end to the standoff.

Things took a turn for the worse for the UK Prime Minister with the Dec 18 high-profile resignation of his Chief Brexit-negotiator, David Frost who was replaced than 24 hours later by Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, who openly backed Remaining in the EU in 2016.

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