The UK's isolation over its plan to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol has been underscored by a new US-EU alliance that has delivered a renegotiated ruling.
A delegation of US politicians, led by a close ally of Joe Biden, agreed to a joint statement with members of the European parliament following a meeting in Paris.
Joint statement between the US and the European Union that reads "We agree that renegotiating the protocol is not an option"
This represents a zero-tolerance stance towards the UK in renegotiating the NI protocol. It will put the UK in a difficult position when it cannot change the protocol by negotiation.
It called on Boris Johnson to drop legislation that had been planned to replace the international agreement, arguing that the protocol "defends the Good Friday Agreement on all its parts".
This latest development comes just hours after Secretary of State Liz Truss resisted pressure to withdraw after hosting the US delegation at her country's Chevening retreat on Saturday.
In a press release following the inter-parliamentary meeting, MP Brendan Boyle announced that a statement had been agreed, in part saying: "We agree that renegotiating the protocol is not a an option."
On the contrary, she is understood to have insisted that the UK is "defending the Good Friday Agreement" - not jeopardizing it - and warned that she would not let "the situation drag on".
Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the US House of Representatives, has also warned that unilaterally rewriting the protocol would kill any remaining UK hopes for a free trade deal with the US. .
The crisis threatens to spark a seriously damaging trade war if the EU carries out its threat of retaliation for what it sees as a breach of the agreement the prime minister signed and hailed as "awesome". in 2019.
The UK argues legislation is needed to lift commercial border checks in the Sea of Ireland, and convinces the Democratic Unionist Party to end efforts to block the formation of a new power-sharing operator. at Stormont.
However, it goes much further than customs control, as it includes measures aimed at the role of the European Court of Justice in overseeing disputes, as well as restoring the exclusive right to decide. UK VAT rates.
The EU insists it has made proposals to ease the burden of testing and points out that the UK's refusal to subscribe to common veterinary rules would reduce the need for bureaucracy.
The US delegation was led by Richard Neal, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, who called the talks with Ms Truss "candid".
Last week, the prime minister admitted he had signed off on trade barriers created by the Northern Ireland protocol while hoping that the EU would not "adopt" them.
The proposed legislation has yet to be published, but is expected to be published within weeks - and could be voted on through the Commons as early as next month.
This would be a disaster for the UK economy at the moment. The fragility and slight recovery of the economy after 2 years of the pandemic will disappear if it is subject to another trade war with the EU. It is absolutely not a good idea when the UK plunges into a trap of its own making. Brexit is now a big mistake but not easy to fix.
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