UK announces settlement over trade dispute with EU

LONDON (AP) — Britain and the European Union ended years of dispute Monday by sealing a deal to resolve their difficult post-Brexit trade dispute over Northern Ireland.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the “breakthrough” marked a “new chapter” in UK-EU relations.

Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed the agreement during a meeting in Windsor, England. Von der Leyen told a press conference that it was “historic what we achieved today”.

The pact, which will allow goods to flow freely to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, ends a dispute that has soured relations between the UK and the EU, leading to the collapse of the regional government based in Belfast and rocked the decades of Northern Ireland. – long peace process.

Solving it represents a big victory for Sunak but not the end of his problems. Selling the deal to his own Conservative party and Northern Ireland allies could prove to be a tougher fight. Now Sunak is awaiting judgment from the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist Party, which is boycotting the region’s power-sharing government until trade deals are amended to its satisfaction.

Sunak is due to make a statement in the House of Commons later outlining the details of the deal.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a border with an EU member state, the Republic of Ireland. When the UK left the bloc in 2020, both sides agreed to keep the Irish border free of customs and other checks, as an open border is a key pillar of the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Instead, some products entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK are checked. It has angered British Unionist politicians in Belfast, who say the new trade border in the Irish Sea is undermining Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.