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Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has defended plans to potentially override the EU withdrawal agreement as an emergency Brexit “insurance policy policy”.
He told the BBC he hoped the powers sought by ministers in the internal markets would never be needed, as a compromise could be reached with the EU.
He said if the UK “breaks international law in a way that is unacceptable to me”, it would resign.
But he made it clear that he “did not believe we would reach that stage.”
The UK has insisted that there should be no new checks on goods going from Northern Ireland to Great Britain when it leaves the EU’s single market and customs union on 1 January.
The Internal Markets Bill, which will be debated by MPs on Monday, will give ministers the power to reduce the amount of paperwork required to fill goods bound for mainland, such as export and exit announcements. Absolute need for them.
In the event that both parties do not agree on a future trade deal, it will allow Ukraine to change or interpret the “State Assistance” rules regarding subsidies for payments in Northern Ireland.
It is controversial because it will change the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a crucial part of a legally binding withdrawal agreement agreed upon by both sides before leaving the EU on 31 January.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the EU is interpreting the protocol in a way that would impose a customs boundary in the Irish Sea and separate Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said the EU could not have been “clear” when the two sides agreed on a Brexit withdrawal agreement last year, while what would be the impact on Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
‘Break the glass in an emergency’
Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr, Mr Bland Clande said the government insisted on powers in the bill only if both parties could not reach an understanding through the process of resolving their dispute and if the EU would act “unreasonably”.
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“I believe with our determination to get the contract, we will find a situation where we do not have to make these provisions. This is all about insurance planning, if you like, the provision to break in case of urgency.”
He acknowledged that there was a “duality” between the UK’s position in domestic and international law but stressed that this would be resolved.
Pressing on whether he would resign if the UK ended breaking international law, he replied: “If I see the rule of law being broken in a way that is unacceptable to me, I will go. We are not at that stage.”
He added: “I don’t think we will reach that stage. I know in my mind what we have to do … we have to resolve any conflict and that is what we will do.”
Food exports in a row
But Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coweni said the UK would “renew” on legally binding commitments if the bill was passed and called “completely bogus” if the denial agreement was a threat to its territorial integrity and the Northern Irish peace process.
More conflicts between the UK and the EU over the issue of food exports to the continent have started since January 1 – when the current post-Brexit transition period ends.
Mr Barnier said it was not true that the EU was threatening to effectively block products of animal origin from crossing the channel by blocking “third country” licenses granted to countries outside the group.
However, his British counterpart David Frost said the UK was not guaranteed that trade would continue.
In a series of messages on TwitterThe prime minister’s chief Brexit negotiator under the proposed EU arrangement suggested that British companies risk not being able to export food from the mainland to Northern Ireland as well.
Despite the government having a comfortable majority of 80 in the House of Commons, it is facing a revolt by Tory backbenchers over the internal markets bill, and is not guaranteed to pass it by the lords.
Pressure is mounting on Conservative lawmakers who are calling it “shameful and embarrassing” by former prime ministers Tony Blair and Sir John Major, who have also expressed doubts about legislation to oppose it.
Rachel Reeves, a spokeswoman for Labor’s Brexit, told the BBC that the party would not be able to support the bill “because of this” because it would “knowingly and consciously violate international law”.
She told the Andrew Marr program that it would be “counter-productive” for the UK and that it would try to achieve free trade agreements with the European Union and others around the world.
He added: “I don’t think we will reach that stage. I know in my mind what we have to do … we have to resolve any conflict and that is what we will do.”
What is a third country list?
A ‘third country’ basically refers to any country outside the EU, and in this case outside its economic constitution – a market and a customs union.
Third country businesses have to fill out customs declarations, for example, when they import and export from the EU – whether there is a trade agreement or not.
The EU also has a formal list of third countries that are approved for food imports – this is what a third country list means.
The UK government says the EU is threatening not to put the UK on that list. And because under the terms of the EU withdrawal agreement Northern Ireland will remain within the EU’s one-market rules, but not the rest of the UK, that means no food can be imported from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
The EU says it is not refusing to put the UK on a third country list – it says it is just waiting to find out what the UK’s import rules will be before making a decision.
The top row of the third country list is attached to the row as compared to the government’s single market bill, although the proposed law does not directly mention the third country list.
