02/11/2018

Brexit Secretary To Meet NI Politicians

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab will visit Norther Ireland later today, Friday 2 November, for meetings with politicians and business leaders.

He is expected to visit a business in the border area.

The Northern Ireland backstop remains the major unsolved issue in the current Brexit negotiations.

It is an arrangement that will take effect if the Irish border cannot be kept as frictionless as it is now in the context of a wider withdrawal agreement.

The EU and the UK have so far agreed on the need for a backstop, but now how it should operate.

A proposal from Brussels that Northern Ireland could remain in the EU customs union, large parts of the single market and the EU VAT system, was rejected by the Government on the grounds that such a deal would pose a threat to the integrity of the UK.

A letter from Mr Raab published earlier this week suggested a Brexit agreement was expected in the next three weeks, however his own department later clarified that there was "no set date for the negotiations to conclude".



(JG)

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