Europe News Desk !! Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has said it will vote against a key part of the UK government’s new post-Brexit trade deal in Parliament this week. DUP leader Geoffrey Donaldson said in a statement on Monday that the Stomont break, while representing real progress, does not deal with the core issue, which is the implementation of European Union (EU) law by the Northern Ireland Protocol. As a central element of the new deal, the Stomont break means that the Northern Ireland Assembly could oppose new EU goods rules that would have a significant and lasting impact on daily life in Northern Ireland. It is our party’s view that there remain major areas of concern that require further clarification, reworking and changes as well as further viewing of the legal text, Donaldson said.
In February, the UK and the EU signed a new post-Brexit trade arrangement for Northern Ireland after lengthy negotiations and dubbed the Windsor Framework, a deal aimed at easing trade issues created by the Northern Ireland Protocol. Northern Ireland’s political parties broadly support the framework, according to a research briefing published by parliament on Saturday, but have raised questions about how the Stomont brake will work. The DUP has previously said it would only support the new arrangements if they met seven tests, including no border in the Irish Sea between Britain and Northern Ireland and no checks on goods going in either direction. The DUP refused to join a power-sharing government in Stormont (the Northern Ireland Assembly) for more than a year, raising concerns over political stability, in protest of post-Brexit trade rules in the region.
–IANS
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