LONDON (UK) – Westminster on Monday hinted that unless free trade agreements are agreed by next month, the exit agreement with the EU could be scuttled.
Ever since Britain voted to quit the EU, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has allegedly been planning a new law to override parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement it signed in January.
However, it can throw into disarray the pact and create frictions in Northern Ireland where there are special arrangements to avoid a rigid frontier with the Irish Republic that could affect the peace agreement with both sides.
Though Britain has said it would honour the treaty, the Financial Times newspaper said the proposed internal market bill was expected to “eliminate the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement” in areas including state aid and Northern Ireland customs.
EU diplomats said this would cast a shadow on Britain’s prestige and heighten chances of a stormy exit from the EU on Dec. 31.
On the other hand, the Boris Johnson government made it clear it was for the exit. “We are taking limited and reasonable steps to clarify specific elements of the Northern Ireland Protocol in domestic law to remove any ambiguity and to ensure the government is always able to deliver on its commitments,” a spokesman for the prime minister said.