A solution to the dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol has to be found “urgently”, Downing Street has said, as relations between the UK and EU worsened.
According to The Times, the government will next week remove the need for checks on all goods being sent from Britain for use in Northern Ireland.
The protocol forms part of the Brexit agreement between the UK and the EU.
It means there are no checks on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
Scrapping the border checks would put the UK in breach of the treaty and has raised the prospect of a trade war.
Belgium’s prime minister, Alexander De Croo has warned the EU would take retaliatory measures.
“Don’t touch this,” the Daily Telegraph reported him having said. “If that agreement would be revoked, then I would think the whole system will be revoked. I would not see any other solution.”
Maros Sefcovic, the vice-president of the European Commission, said: “renegotiation is not an option”.
Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said on Tuesday: “It remains a very serious situation.
“I think our preference still remains obviously to reach a negotiated solution. But we have been doing this for 16 months.
“We reserve the right to take further actions if solutions can’t be found urgently.”
They added: “We are at a position where the proposals put in front of us do not improve things, in fact they are a backwards step.”
The protocol was agreed in order to prevent a so-called hard border on the island of Ireland, amid concerns that would lead to return to violence.
Instead, goods are checked when they travel from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland.
Johnson agreed to this deal in 2019. But since then the government has said the system is not working as the checks are disrupting trade within the UK.
Unionist politicians in Northern Ireland are also unhappy that there is a border between the region and the rest of the UK.
Sinn Féin, the nationalist party which supports the protocol, emerged from last week’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections as the largest party.
But the DUP, the largest unionist party, has refused to join the new executive until its problems with the protocol are addressed.