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According to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, London does not want to exercise at all the powers that would be provided by a bill that would potentially nullify certain clauses of the agreement on the conditions for the termination of British membership in the EU (Brexit).
Johnson, who officially unveiled the bill in London’s Lower House on Monday night, sparked serious national and international controversy, saying the bill would serve as an “insurance policy.”
According to the British Prime Minister, there is a proven willingness in the European Union to give “absurd” interpretations of certain elements of the Brexit Agreement, in particular the special protocol on Northern Ireland.
He added that the EU had behaved “extreme and irrational” in recent months, threatening, for example, to ban the UK from exporting animal products.
“It is intolerable that our EU partners seriously believe that they have a way of dividing our country,” Johnson said, according to MTI.
In particular, the Northern Ireland Protocol to the Brexit Agreement provided that EU customs duties could apply to trade in goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that are presumed to enter the EU single internal market, in particular Ireland. According to the protocol, a joint committee would determine which of these products.
However, according to Boris Johnson, many people in the EU now assume that by default all goods are like this, so customs duties should be applied to all goods in trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. According to the British Prime Minister, this would mean, for example, a tax of up to 90 per cent on Scottish beef sent to Northern Ireland.
What does the Northern Ireland Protocol say?
The 64-page Northern Ireland Protocol annexed to the Brexit Agreement aims to prevent the control of trade in goods at the 499-kilometer border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the only EU-UK land border, when the UK EU expires at the end of December. -The transition period that will take effect after the termination of membership on January 31st. As one of the main achievements of the reconciliation process in Northern Ireland on this border, physical control has not existed for a long time.
According to the principles of the Protocol, Northern Ireland would remain in a harmonized system with some elements of the European Union rules, especially those relating to trade in goods, and would remain a member of the European Union’s single internal market.
UK authorities may apply UK customs duties to imports into Northern Ireland from third countries, provided the imports in question do not enter the EU single internal market.
However, for imports that cannot be ruled out from appearing on the internal market of the European Union, the UK authorities are required to apply EU customs duties. The same applies to trade in goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
In practice this could mean that in some cases a customs border could arise between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
However, the bill introduced by the British government this week, which Johnson formally outlined on Monday evening, would in all circumstances exempt businesses in Northern Ireland from any special customs documentation obligations in intra-UK trade. United Kingdom and would empower the UK government to ignore the Northern Ireland Protocol. leave.
This is justified by the British government.
According to the official justification of the British Government, the law is necessary because the economic and territorial integrity of the United Kingdom must be protected even if a bilateral free trade agreement with the European Union cannot be reached.
However, the European Commission already described the draft in a strong statement last week as a breach of contract and a violation of international law, against which there is also growing opposition in Britain’s ruling Conservative Party.
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