‘Sausage war’ truce imminent as grace period extension to be announced ‘soon’
A truce in the so-called “sausage war” between the UK and EU is imminent, with a three-month extension to the current grace period expected to be announced soon.
The two sides have clashed in recent weeks over the EU’s upcoming ban of chilled meats, like sausages and minced beef, crossing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Johnson had previously threatened to flout this ban and unilaterally trigger Article 16, which would suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol and severely inflame tensions.
But Boris Johnson’s spokesman today confirmed that the introduction of new customs checks would be pushed back, easing tensions with the bloc.
“We expect to agree an extension to the chilled meats grace period soon on terms that are acceptable to the UK and will announce further details in the usual way,” he said.
Yesterday European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic said he was confident that agreement could be reached within the EU on the extension proposal by Wednesday.
The UK and EU have been negotiating for months over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which sees checks on some goods crossing the Irish Sea.
This is because Northern Ireland still follows EU customs union and single market rules, unlike the rest of the UK, in order to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.
In a bid to get round the impasse, the Commission has proposed alignment on veterinary checks, which it says would reduce total checks by 80 per cent.
But this is not acceptable to the UK government, who argue that the point of Brexit was to get away from EU rules.