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THE DOMESTIC MARKET The bill came with a thud, but it may have disappeared from the headlines since then, despite major developments with it this week.
As a quick summary: the UK and EU negotiating teams are locked in tense trade negotiations, which seem like they could collapse at any moment due to any of the three main obstacles of state aid rules, fisheries or a mechanism of control. dispute agreed.
As these trade talks falter towards the end, with the final talks scheduled for the next two weeks, the UK introduced a bill that could derail the entire process. The internal market bill.
The UK has been heavily criticized by former British Prime Ministers, EU figures and high-ranking US politicians for proposing a national bill that would break an international treaty (with the very countries with which it is trying to negotiate a new deal in a tight context). time period as well).
Although the Irish government is concerned about these developments, as Minister Simon Coveney showed in a heated exchange with Andrew Marr, the focus of this bill is to sit back and see what happens to it as it passes through the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
What does it say
The bill is intended to ensure free trade in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland after Brexit.
But it would give a British minister the power to unilaterally regulate UK state aid within Northern Ireland, a violation of the Protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement that says he must contact the EU about any state aid that needs to be granted.
Northern Ireland’s Secretary, Brandon Lewis, admitted in the House of Commons that the bill “violates international law in a very specific and limited way.”
Johnson says the powers are needed only if the EU threatens to impose customs and regulatory controls on certain types of trade ranging from Britain to Northern Ireland.
Johnson said the controls on live animals and agri-food products going from Britain to Northern Ireland are a food “blockade”, but the Irish government has repeatedly corrected it.
As the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Coveney, said: “What is agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement and in the Protocol is that there will be limited controls on goods coming from the UK to Northern Ireland, because there is an agreement to avoid the need for border infrastructure on the island of Ireland “.
What happened this week
This week, the deputies proposed amendments to the internal markets bill. One, proposed by the British government’s secondary MPs, was approved.
The only difference would be to give MPs the power to approve the date these powers to override the Withdrawal Agreement go into effect (MPs love to emphasize the power of parliament versus the government in office).
Coveney has already said that this amendment is not enough to ease the concerns of Ireland and the European Union, and wants full implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement before any EU-UK trade deals are signed.
Conservative MP Bob Neill, who led the threatened rebellion of Conservative MPs opposing the bill, said the new amendment, which would restrict the use of powers, did “the best of a bad job.”
“It is not where I wanted to be, but in the interest of the country, it is right that we get a set of rules that works properly to improve and improve the domestic market within the UK,” he said during the debate on Tuesday.
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On Thursday, Attorney General Suella Braverman was questioned about her approval of the bill and called her opposition counterpart unpatriotic, “emotional” and “illogical” for suggesting otherwise.
What happens next
The bill will now receive further debate in the Commons early next week, ahead of a vote Tuesday on whether it should go to the upper House of Lords for weeks of scrutiny there before becoming law.
There is some suggestion that the bill could be stalled and suspended in the process pending the outcome of trade negotiations.
If the British team gets what it wants from the trade negotiations, particularly with regard to state aid, it will most likely withdraw the bill. If they don’t, the threat remains on the table (like Johnson’s favorite metaphor for the sword of Damocles).
The EU has demanded Britain to withdraw clauses from the bill that conflict with the Withdrawal Agreement or could face legal action, and Minister Simon Coveney has said there will be no trade deal as long as the threat of that draft bill persists. law.
– with AFP reports
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