UK demands EU agree to new N.Ireland Brexit deal

UK demands EU agree to new N.Ireland Brexit deal

LONDON - Britain on Wednesday demanded a new deal from the European Union to govern post-Brexit trade with Northern Ireland, saying it already had cause to step away from parts of the deal that it struck with Brussels only last year. The Northern Ireland protocol, backed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, was part of the settlement that finally sealed Britain's sometimes bitter divorce from the bloc, four years after Britons voted to leave in a referendum. Businesses in the province say it is damaging trade, and some pro-British groups have protested at what they say is a weakening of ties with Britain. On Wednesday, London said it wanted a new "balance", and to eliminate EU oversight. "We cannot go on as we are," Brexit minister David Frost told parliament. The protocol addresses the biggest conundrum of the divorce: how to ensure the delicate peace brought to the province by a 1998 U.S.-brokered peace accord - by maintaining an open border - without opening a back door through Ireland to the EU's single market of 450 million people. It essentially requires checks on goods between the British mainland and Northern Ireland, but these have proved burdensome to companies and an anathema