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A deal to hold off a post-Brexit ban on sausages and other chilled meats moving from Britain to Northern Ireland is expected to be announced at the eleventh-hour.<\/p>\nA deal to hold off a post-Brexit ban on sausages and other chilled meats moving from Britain to Northern Ireland is expected to be announced at the eleventh-hour.<\/p>\n
The UK and the European Union are set to announce an extension to a grace period allowing their movement across the Irish Sea on Wednesday \u2014 hours before a ban would come into force.<\/p>\n
Brussels\u2019 post-Brexit negotiator Maros Sefcovic is scheduled to address the media on Wednesday afternoon, while the UK is expected to issue a statement.<\/p>\n
Downing Street anticipated that a deal to avoid a ban on sausage shipments, which would come into place on Thursday without action, would be reached \u201con terms which are acceptable to the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n
The UK Government had threatened to unilaterally extend the grace period, something which would have triggered retaliatory action from the EU in the trade conflict dubbed the \u201csausage war\u201d.<\/p>\n
A prohibition on chilled meats is one element of Brexit\u2019s contentious Northern Ireland Protocol, which has created a series of economic barriers on Irish Sea trade.<\/p>\n
The protocol is aimed at avoiding a hard border with Ireland by effectively keeping the North in the EU\u2019s single market for goods.<\/p>\n
Shipments of chilled meats from third countries into the single market are banned \u2014 a prohibition which will cover the rest of the UK unless a lasting solution is found.<\/p>\n
Mr Sefcovic, a European Commission vice-president, told a Northern Ireland Assembly committee on Monday that he was confident an extension would be granted \u201cthat will address both sides\u2019 needs and concerns\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said an \u201cobvious\u201d way to remove new Irish Sea trade checks and restrictions on a longer term basis would be for the UK to strike a deal on animal and plant standards that would see London align with Brussels\u2019 agri-food regulations.<\/p>\n