UK, EU seal new post-Brexit deal on Northern Ireland trade

BLOOMBERG

The UK and European Union (EU) reached a deal on Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements, ending more than a year of often acrimonious wrangling over the post-Brexit settlement for the region, people familiar with the matter said.
The agreement follows a meeting between British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, according to the people, who requested anonymity discussing a deal that’s yet to be made public. The two sides have been negotiating over new terms to ease trade flows between Britain and Northern Ireland and put to rest the biggest hangover of Brexit three years after the UK left the EU.
A press conference will be held later, followed by a statement the prime minister will give on the deal to the House of Commons.
Von der Leyen was expected to meet with King Charles III.
It’s a triumph for Sunak, who has sought to dial down tensions with the EU since taking power in October. But there could still be peril ahead for the premier, who was unable convince unionists in Northern Ireland and Brexiteers in his own ruling Conservative Party to endorse the agreement last week.
The agreement seeks to soften trade and regulatory barriers that emerged within the UK as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol — the portion of the Brexit deal negotiated by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson that governs the region’s unique place in both the UK and EU’s trading markets.
For the UK government, clinching a revised deal was an outcome that sometimes seemed impossible and threatened to spark a trade war as tensions rose in 2022. But Sunak’s big domestic political challenge comes now.
For the past year, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has blocked the formation of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government in protest at the protocol. Without DUP support for the new deal the region’s constitutional crisis risks dragging on.
UK officials said in recent weeks that they believed the deal they were heading towards would meet the seven tests set by the DUP for an acceptable resolution.
But an announcement was delayed for days because of DUP concerns, with leader Jeffrey Donaldson proving hard to win round.
Sunak also needs to keep ardent Brexiteers in his own party onside, many of whom are close to the DUP. He leads a party riven by internal divisions after nearly 13 years in power, and any mismanagement risks a rebellion.
Though the agreement may not require a vote in the House of Commons — the process that ultimately brought down Theresa May in 2019 — Sunak pledged to allow MPs to express their views, and backbenchers have made it clear they expect to get a say.
“It is crucial that Parliament has a vote,” Theresa Villiers, a Conservative backbencher and former Northern Ireland secretary, told BBC radio.
“I can’t conceive of circumstances where something as significant as this can be finally agreed and implemented without MPs voting in Parliament.”
For Sunak, winning support for the deal would resolve an issue that has hampered relations between London and Brussels since it was first drawn up in December 2020.
There are also broader implications. Three years after Brexit, Sunak recently privately asked senior minister and officials to make plans to rebuild relations, with work focused on defense, migration, trade and energy.