Any hope that a solution to the Northern Ireland protocol could be found ahead of the G7 summit have been dashed. This morning, David Frost – the minister in charge of Brexit relations – met with European Commission vice president Maroš Šefčovič at Admiralty House on Whitehall to discuss the current impasse over Irish Sea border checks.
The row? After the UK unilaterally extended grace periods on several checks, the EU has threatened to retaliate if the UK tries to extend these on imports of chilled meat products to Northern Ireland from Great Britain. This has led to talk of a ‘sausage war’ which threatens to cast a shadow over Boris Johnson’s attempt to woo world leaders, including Joe Biden in Cornwall on Thursday.
The meeting between Frost and Šefčovič failed to lead to much in the way of solutions.
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