FirstFT: UK sets collision course with EU under plans to redraw Brexit treaty

FirstFT: UK sets collision course with EU under plans to redraw Brexit treaty

The UK will put itself on a collision course with Brussels today by unveiling a set of demands that would overhaul post-Brexit trading arrangements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Lord David Frost, Cabinet Office minister, will outline what officials called a "wholesale change of approach" that seeks to eliminate most of the checks on the Irish Sea trade border that came into force in January.

In a warning that Britain could suspend the Northern Ireland protocol if the EU does not give way, Frost will claim the UK is already within its rights to activate the Article 16 override clause in the agreement.

The new UK position is likely to infuriate Brussels. Under the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol agreed by Johnson in 2019 to avoid the return of a hard border in Ireland, all goods shipped from Great Britain to the region must follow the EU's rules for customs and agrifood products.

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