MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s Brexit minister threatened Monday to trigger a contentious break clause in the U.K.\u2019s divorce deal with the European Union \u2014 a move that would send the U.K.\u2019s already chilly relations with its huge neighbor into a deep freeze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David Frost told a gathering of the U.K.\u2019s governing Conservative Party that the Brexit agreement \u2014 which he negotiated and was signed by Britain and the EU \u2014 was undermining peace in Northern Ireland and causing \u201cinstability and disruption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said unless there are major changes to the deal, Britain will invoke Article 16, a provision that lets either side suspend the agreement in exceptional circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Britain has made that threat before, and Frost did not pull the trigger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut we cannot wait forever,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crisis straining U.K.-EU relations stems from trade arrangements for Northern Ireland, the only part of the U.K. that has a land border with the 27-nation bloc. The divorce deal the two sides struck before Britain\u2019s departure means customs and border checks must be conducted on some goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The regulations are intended to prevent goods from Britain entering the EU\u2019s tariff-free single market while keeping an open border between Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland \u2014 a key pillar of Northern Ireland\u2019s peace process. But the checks have angered Northern Ireland\u2019s unionists, who say they impose burdensome red tape on businesses and weaken Northern Ireland\u2019s ties with the rest of the U.K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain accuses the EU of being needlessly \u201cpurist\u201d in implementing the agreement, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, and says it requires major changes to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blaming the bloc\u2019s \u201cheavy-handed actions,\u201d Frost said \u201cthe Protocol itself\u201d was undermining Northern Ireland\u2019s 1998 peace agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBusinesses, political parties, the institutions, and indeed all in Northern Ireland face instability and disruption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo I urge the EU to be ambitious. It\u2019s no use tinkering around the edges. We need significant change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials in the EU are likely to greet Frost\u2019s ultimatum with disdain. The EU blames Britain for the disruption, accusing it of trying to renege on a legally binding deal it signed up to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain has also angered the EU by delaying the introduction of checks on some goods from the bloc agreed in the divorce deal, citing the burden on businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain\u2019s Conservatives are holding their first in-person conference since Britain left the bloc last year. Despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s vow to \u201cget Brexit done,\u201d the rupture is roiling the economy as Britain tries to bounce back from pandemic disruption and damage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A severe shortage of truck drivers, due in part to a post-Brexit exodus of European workers, has snarled British supply chains, leaving gaps on supermarket shelves, fast-food chains without chicken and gas pumps dry of fuel. Scores of soldiers have been drafted in to drive fuel tankers after more than a week of gas shortages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Britain\u2019s Brexit minister th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":882,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=881"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881\/revisions\/883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}