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As the eighth round of trade talks with the European Union is about to start, UK government officials from the
chief trade negotiator, David Frost, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have put out the word that Britain is ready to walk away. To underscore the point, Boris Johnson is setting a deal deadline of October 15.
The PM  is also threatening something much more serious. According to a Financial Times report, the government will introduce legislation contravening the international treaty that sealed Britain’s EU exit. If Johnson follows through with the new law, which would weaken the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement’s provisions on Northern Ireland, he will probably scupper chances of a trade deal and undermine Britain’s international standing and credibility. At a time when his error-ridden Covid policies are under fire, it seems an odd gamble.
“This would be a very
unwise way to proceed,†tweeted Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign and defense minister. That’s diplomat speak for, “Are you out of your mind?†The idea of effectively ripping up the Northern Ireland Protocol is so extreme it’s tempting to dismiss the suggestion as an empty threat. And yet, even the posturing is worrying.
Ireland, for those who can remember back to the herky-jerky ride of the Brexit talks, has a big stake in this. The purpose of
the Protocol in the exit agreement is to keep the Irish border free of any customs infrastructure and allow the EU to enforce its own customs regime, while letting the UK pretend it hadn’t ceded any sovereignty by letting this happen. Johnson has always hated that concession.
Trade negotiations are stuck primarily over the question of state-aid rules. The EU argues that Britain should hew closely to the trading bloc’s regulations to avoid unfair competition; Johnson’s government argues that as a non-member it no longer has to obey the EU. Only it sort of does. Under the terms of the Protocol, the UK cannot diverge from EU state aid rules in any way that impacts trade between Northern Ireland and the EU.
—Bloomberg