The Northern Ireland protocol is under threat. Again
Triggering Article 16 would mean testy trade talks—and a risk of no deal
NEGOTIATIONS ON THE Northern Ireland protocol are deadlocked. To avert a hard north-south border with Ireland, it keeps the province (though not Great Britain) in the EU’s single market for goods. But protecting the single market means customs controls on goods crossing the Irish Sea. The European Commission has offered to simplify these controls a great deal, but Britain insists on a total rewrite of the protocol to remove most checks and the authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ)—demands that the commission has no authority even to discuss.
This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Groundhog day”
Britain November 13th 2021
- Can smaller reactors make nuclear power economic?
- Britons want to prevent climate change, but favour expensive solutions
- The Northern Ireland protocol is under threat. Again
- London’s bridges are falling down
- Voters do not want MPs to profit from their job
- Which products are scarce on Britain’s shelves?
- Britain used to treat her dead soldiers with disdain. One man changed that
- How Boris Johnson’s failure to tackle sleaze among MPs could prove costly
From the November 13th 2021 edition
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