The UK and Brussels are locked in a fractious legal standoff over the implementation of the deal covering post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland, which has strained EU-UK relations since it came into effect in January 2021. . Officials close to Truss have consulted legal and commercial experts about the plans in recent weeks. The Allies said triggering Article 16 would provide an interim loophole while legislation to unilaterally review the Northern Ireland protocol goes through the Commons, which is not expected until the end of this year at the earliest. The British government tabled legislation in June to dismantle the deal, prompting the European Commission to reopen legal proceedings against the UK for failing to implement checks on the Irish Sea border. Triggering Article 16 would effectively exhaust legal options before the UK government follows through on its threat to unilaterally destroy the protocol. The UK has until September 15 to respond to the EU’s legal action — just 10 days after the Tory leader entered Downing Street. But people familiar with Tras’s plans said if she became prime minister she could trigger Article 16 before that deadline to protect UK businesses. The Truss campaign said its preference was “a negotiated solution” but acknowledged “there are serious problems with the Northern Ireland protocol that need fixing”. Allies of Truss insist he was not “pushing” to trigger Article 16, but that it remained an option on the table if he became prime minister. An official close to the foreign secretary said: “Some government officials have expressed concerns about issues coming up the road and have presented a number of options to ministers to deal with.” The planned move risks escalating tensions with Brussels early in a Truss premiership, but campaign insiders argued the action would be necessary to maintain the trade status quo in Northern Ireland. Under the terms of the protocol, all goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland must follow EU rules, creating a commercial border in the Irish Sea that the UK government has described as “non-functional”. The EU has warned that if the UK scraps the protocol, it risks sparking a trade war with Europe and possibly even suspending the entire Trade and Partnership Agreement negotiated between the two sides.

By the time ties were severed in June, both had agreed to a “suspension agreement” that called for lighter enforcement of the deal. But Truss’ allies said the EU’s legal action had effectively ended that deal by reverting to the demand for full implementation. The UK said in July 2021 that the conditions were already met to justify the use of Article 16, which can be triggered if either side believes the protocol has led to “serious economic, social or environmental hardship”. Once activated, the two sides begin “direct consultations” in the joint committee that governs the deal, but each side can take “proportionate counterbalancing measures” if no agreement can be reached. Truss’ plans come after HM Revenue & Customs informed British steel producers this week that they will have to pay a 25% duty to sell some construction products in Northern Ireland because of the protocol. Steel industry representatives described the situation as “dire”, while a UK government spokesman said the tariffs were an example of how the protocol “needlessly harms” trade within the UK and “why it needs to be fixed urgently”. The tariff move was cited by a Truss ally as to why it plans to act. “We can’t go on like this and something has to break the deadlock.” The European Commission said the UK had not provided the information it needed to resolve the tariff issue, which was triggered as a result of changes to overall EU import quotas in July. He declined to comment on the possible triggering of Article 16. Earlier this month, the UK government launched separate legal proceedings against Brussels after the Commission blocked the UK’s joint membership of the EU’s €95.5bn Horizon Europe science programme. Horizon membership was negotiated in 2020 as part of the EU-UK trade deal, but has been put on hold due to the UK’s failure to fully honor the Northern Ireland deal, EU officials have confirmed.