“Peace: A period of cheating between two periods of fighting.”
hat was the view of the great US satirical writer, Ambrose Bierce, whose Devil’s Dictionary will tell you much you need to know about politics in particular and life in general.
And this writer knew what he was talking about as he lived through the US Civil War and was last heard of heading into revolutionary Mexico in 1913 aged 71.
Bierce’s little gem came to mind today as the EU and the UK called a truce in the great Brexit ‘sausage war’ which threatened to further compound hostilities about the North’s special trade status in the wake of the EU-UK divorce saga.
The deal avoids an escalation of conflict over the shipment of chilled meats from England, Scotland and Wales, to Northern Ireland. A grace period allowing the continued supply of chilled meats, including sausages, across the Irish Sea has been extended until September 30.
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London’s Brexit minister David Frost welcomed the outcome as a positive first step allowing talks seeking a permanent solution to continue.
He said Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom and its shoppers should be able to buy products from the adjoining island of Britain as they had done before Brexit happened.
A potential ban on British chilled meats coming into the North is one result of Brexit's contentious Northern Ireland Protocol. This prevents a return of north-south border checks in Ireland but has created a series of economic barriers on Irish Sea trade.
The North’s special post-Brexit trade status effectively keeps Northern Ireland in the EU's single market for goods. But to protect product standards in the EU’s single market, which has 27 countries and 450 million people, there needs to be some kind of controls on goods going into the North.
Shipments of chilled meats from non-EU countries into the single market are banned. That ban prohibition will eventually cover the rest of the UK unless a lasting solution is found.
The London government and Northern unionists have repeatedly complained about the implementation of the new North trade regime. But it was part of the Brexit deal negotiated by Frost and signed of by Boris Johnson.
The potential ‘sausage war’ was, of course, just a symbol of the ongoing EU-UK pulling and dragging.
"The chilled meats issue is only one of a very large number of problems with the way the protocol is currently operating, and solutions need to be found with the EU to ensure it delivers on its original aims: to protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, safeguard Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom, and protect the EU's single market for goods.
"We look to work energetically with the EU to do so."
In order to secure this extension, the UK firstly had to formally ask on this occasion – instead of just helping themselves to extra time as they did months ago. London also agreed to maintain its existing rules relating to meat products with provisions on official certification and labelling saying they are not for sale outside of the UK jurisdiction.
Meanwhile, the talks will drag on for quite some time to come. But that of itself is a good sign.
