David Frost refuses to back down to EU on N.I post-Brexit trade ‘Point was to be free!’
Brexit: EU rules 'out of the question' for UK says Menon
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Director of UK in a Changing Europe, Professor Anand Menon has warned both the UK and EU could find themselves in a stalemate regarding post-Brexit Northern Ireland trade. During an interview with Express.co.uk, Professor Menon insisted Lord David Frost will not accept adopting EU rules to resolve the Northern Ireland trade issue. He insisted this was because for Lord Frost, like many Brexiteers, the point of leaving the European Union was to be free of EU rules.
Professor Menon said: “What the EU wants the UK to do is sign up to some of its plans and animal standards rules.
“That will remove an awful lot of the need for an awful lot of the checks now that have to happen between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“David Frost has said that is absolutely out of the question.
“For him, the whole point of Brexit was to be free of EU rules.
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“That is what he would have to do but I am pretty convinced that he is not going to do it.”
The political expert reiterated the viewpoints of both the EU and UK and why it was proving difficult to resolve.
He continued: “Either the two sides can negotiate their way out of this and say let us come up with schemes that mitigate the need for these checks.
“Or, as the British Government is insisting, the EU needs to approach the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol in a slightly different way.
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“I don’t see the EU doing this at the moment.
“As far as they are concerned, loosening the checks at the border leaves open the danger of the single market’s integrity being challenged by goods coming in from Great Britain that haven’t been checked.
“I think they are going to have to talk this through and come up with as many clever fixes to those trade frictions that are developing between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”
Prof Menon went on to emphasised the complexity and unusual nature of the situation currently
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He said: “Bear in mind what a weird situation this is.
“We are not talking about a customs and regulatory border between two countries here.
“We are talking about a customs and regulatory border within the UK.
“That is what makes this such a fraught issue both for politicians in Westminster but particularly for the unionist community in Northern Ireland.”
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