British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss announced on Tuesday that the United Kingdom will introduce domestic legislation "in the coming weeks" that will unilaterally change the Northern Ireland Protocol, part of the Brexit agreement with the European Union. The bill will address areas of the protocol on which the UK and the EU could not agree, including the movement of goods, goods regulation, VAT, and governance.
Truss argued the changes are needed in order to address the "very grave and serious situation" in Northern Ireland, whose major political parties have opposing stances on the protocol. She insisted that the UK is not scrapping the agreement and that the upcoming legislation is consistent with its international law obligations and the Northern Irish Good Friday Agreement. She reassured that the bill will only impact goods staying within the UK, while goods exported from the UK to the EU will undergo checks according to EU laws.
