The UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has said the British government wants to fix not scrap the Northern Ireland protocol but warned the situation cannot be allowed to “drift” indefinitely.
Speaking during a visit to businesses in Lisburn, Co Antrim, on Wednesday, Ms Truss told reporters: “We are not talking about scrapping the protocol, what we are talking about is fixing the issues so we can protect north-south trade whilst at the same time making east-west trade easier.”
“We have had months of negotiations with the EU and our preference remains a negotiated solution but what we cannot allow is for this situation to drift,” she said.
Ms Truss last week said the UK government intended to introduce legislation to unilaterally disavow parts of the protocol, which is opposed by unionists.
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She said she was in Northern Ireland “to talk about our solution on customs, putting in place a red and green lane to make sure that we remove customs bureaucracy for those goods that are travelling from Great Britain into Northern Ireland, so we can restore the balance between the communities and restore the working of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement”.
“We do have difficulties with companies, and I have met them before in Northern Ireland and am meeting more today, of being able to get goods into Northern Ireland, there is an issue with costs, there is an issue with communities not feeling respected in Northern Ireland.
“It’s very important that we deal with these practical issues, how we remove the customs bureaucracy whilst at the same time protecting the EU Single Market to resolve this situation.”
Her visit to Northern Ireland coincided with the arrival in the North of a group of Democratic and Republican delegates from the US House of Representatives, led by the influential Congressman Richard Neal.
He was in Derry on Wednesday for meetings with politicians and community groups before travelling to Stormont to meet political leaders on Thursday.
Addressing reporters on the city’s Peace Bridge, Mr Neal hailed the “risks” taken in the city for peace and said people had taken on “much more severe challenges” than those currently posed by the Northern Ireland protocol.
Asked if he stood by his comments that the dispute appeared to be a “manufactured issue”, which were described as “outrageous” by the DUP, Mr Neal said it was “significantly disproportionate” when compared to the problems which had previously been addressed by the two communities in Northern Ireland.
“This is an issue for the European Union and for the UK government to sift and sort,” he said. “I think we want to be mindful of the fact that the difference of opinion that existed from Brussels and London was substantial, and the commission in the European Union, they suggested these problems were imminently solvable, and I think based on the conversations we had of good faith that is the case.”
Mr Neal also indicated he would talk to the DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson later. “I have known him for a long period of time, I don’t want to trespass. I have had a good relationship with him over the years,” he said.
