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LONDON – Britain and the European Union are closer to resolving another key area of contention over post-Brexit trade in Northern Ireland, as the two sides prepare to enter intense talks next week.
Negotiators are finalizing a solution to a long-running legal row over tariff rate quotas (TRQs), which have prevented Northern Ireland from reducing Britain’s import duties on products such as steel, according to three people familiar with the talks. Is.
British steel producers angered at having to pay a 25 percent tariff last year to sell some construction products into Northern Ireland after EU quotas for global imports ran out earlier than expected. The issue has also angered Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which opposes the current post-Brexit agreement because it views the region as separate from the rest of the UK.
An agreement on TRQ would be the latest step following another ‘mini-deal’ on data sharing earlier this week, and could suggest an EU-UK acrimony over the Northern Ireland Protocol, a key element of the Brexit divorce deal. an end.
“We have entered a new momentum, which I am confident will yield positive results,” said an EU official. “I don’t think it will fail. The change in British attitude was already evident, and it has been confirmed. There is a willingness to find a solution quickly.”
EU and UK officials are now immersed in “scoping exercises” to test the limits of each other’s positions and assess whether technical solutions exist for each contentious aspect of the protocol.
The exercise could continue until Sunday, officials said, and – if successful – could pave the way for an announcement on Monday that the two sides are entering “the tunnel” – a quiet, highly intense confrontation between senior political Duration of talks leaders.
European Commission Vice President Maros Šefčovič and British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly are due to meet in person in Brussels on Monday to discuss the latest steps, while British and Irish officials will hold talks in Dublin next weekend.
a diplomat from an EU country said that after a deal earlier this week On the use of a live information system detailing goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, both sides aim to lay out “low-hanging fruit” in the hope that it will generate “political momentum” for an overarching deal. Will do
Towards that end, negotiating teams have also made progress in the area of customs, officials on both sides said, although the UK does not believe all issues have been resolved yet.
A British official said the European Union has made concessions to its procedures on exports from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, but Britain is still pushing for more changes.
Shankar Singham, a former senior Brexit adviser to the UK government, said other potential “quick wins” could include making it easier for traders to obtain the UK Trading Scheme, which regulates goods that originate in Great Britain But they are not considered there. The risk of Northern Ireland entering the EU single market.
Another, he suggested, would be to reopen the Authorized Trader scheme, which allows certain companies such as supermarkets and their trusted suppliers to move goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland without the need for official certification. The scheme has been closed for new entrants from December 2020.
elephant in the room
However, despite the musings of positive mood, European diplomats are still fearful of the political backlash UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak could face internally in the coming weeks as a final deal is struck.
One warned that the next phase of talks would generate a “running commentary” that could torpedo talks if Sunak cannot keep the Eurosceptic wing of his Conservative Party on board.
The same EU official said, “The new prime minister wants to find a solution, but (the UK) has too many internal difficulties.”
Speaking on Friday morning, UK Labor leader Keir Starmer urged Sunak to put forward Northern Ireland as a “Brexit purity cult” within the Tory party and cut a deal.
“There is a small window of opportunity before April,” Starmer said during a two-day visit to Belfast, referring to the weeks leading up to April’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, which led to massive protests in Northern Ireland. Communal violence ended.
During a visit to Stormont the previous day, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar warned that it was “not certain” that a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol would lead to the reinstatement of the power-sharing regional executive, given the DUP’s many protests. proposed solution.
Singham predicted that unless the final deal allowed Northern Ireland to retain at least some control over regulations on goods moving entirely within the UK internal market, DUP support would be difficult to gain, and that allowing the territory to either follow or follow British rule. There is something to be said on those that must be followed.
The UK government has set a January 19 deadline for Northern Ireland’s parties to form a new power-sharing executive or face another election. That deadline is now likely to be extended by another three months.