Northern Irish Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Edwin Poots ordered a halt to checks on goods coming into the region’s ports, risking further turmoil in Brexit negotiations.
Post-Brexit checks brought in since the end of 2020 would cease from midnight on Wednesday, Poots told reporters in Belfast, according to local media including PA and Irish national broadcaster RTE.
Northern Ireland was effectively kept in the EU’s single market following the UK’s departure from the bloc under an agreement designed to avoid creating a hard border on the island of Ireland. As a result, goods moving into the region from the rest of the UK are subject to customs checks.
“I have now issued a formal instruction to my permanent secretary to halt all checks that were not in place on December 31, 2020, from midnight tonight,” Poots said, citing legal advice, according to the reports.
Poots’ move risks further damaging relations between the UK and the EU as the two sides conduct a sensitive negotiation over changes to their post-Brexit settlement.
The UK’s foot-dragging on implementing the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, such as by unilaterally and indefinitely refusing to carry out obligations such as health checks on food products crossing the Irish Sea, has soured relations with the EU and prompted criticisms that the UK is breaching the Brexit agreement.
Poots’ decision is the latest example of non-compliance.
The minister said he intends to prepare a paper for consideration by the regional government’s executive, whose approval is required for the checks to continue.
“The minister has received senior counsel advice and has issued an instruction on that basis,” a spokesman for the Northern Irish Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said.
Asked if he would override Poots and reinstate the checks, British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis said the issue was a matter for Stormont and the decision was “within their legal remit.”
“The minister is reacting to what he says is a problem in terms of allowing goods into Northern Ireland,” Lewis said on ITV’s Peston program. “This is an outworking, a manifestation of the way that the EU have insisted on seeing the protocol implemented.”
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