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Johnson, who officially introduced the bill in London’s Lower House on Monday night, sparked serious national and international controversy, said:
the draft would serve as an insurance policy.
According to the British Prime Minister, there is a demonstrated willingness in the European Union to interpret certain elements of the Brexit Agreement in an absurd way, in particular the Special Protocol on Northern Ireland.
He added that the EU had behaved in an extreme and unreasonable way 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 can divide our country
Johnson said.
In particular, under the Northern Ireland Protocol to the Brexit Agreement, EU customs duties could apply to trade in goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland that are expected 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.
The purpose of the 64-page Northern Ireland Protocol annexed to the Brexit Agreement is to ensure that trade in goods is not subject to controls at the 499 km border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the only land border between the EU and the UK, when the UK EU expires at the end of December. -The transition period will go into effect after 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.
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.
Cover Image Source: Steve Taylor / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
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