EU agrees to use UK trade database in Brexit talks breakthrough

The European Union has agreed to use the UK’s live database tracking goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, the first sign of progress in a long-running dispute on post-Brexit trading rules.

An accord was finalized at a lunch between UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic on Monday, according to a joint statement.

The EU completed testing on the database proposed by the UK last year, and suggested several areas of improvement, a person familiar with the matter said. The UK agreed to work on that feedback, the person added.

Work on the database issue was a “critical prerequisite to building trust and providing assurance, and provided a new basis for EU-UK discussions,” the statement said.

The development is the first hurdle cleared since talks began again last year after an eight-month stalemate. While it is a technical step, a database deal will raise hopes for a further agreement on trade flows, and may help to reduce customs checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

Red line

Monday’s progress comes after mood music around the talks improved in recent weeks, raising hopes of a deal to resolve the wider Northern Ireland impasse.

Outstanding issues include disagreement over the governance of Northern Ireland, with the UK demanding that the European Court of Justice be stripped of its role in settling Brexit disputes in the region. That remains a red line for the EU.

However, resolving checks on goods is seen as a prerequisite. The dispute stems from the original Brexit deal, when both sides agreed to avoid a land border on the island of Ireland. The mechanism to that effectively placed a frontier in the Irish Sea, and allowed Northern Ireland to remain in the bloc’s single market.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman, Max Blain, told reporters Monday that the UK has had “good discussions” with the EU commission. The parties want to achieve an agreement that works in the long-term rather than working toward a specific deadline, like the 25th anniversary, in April, of Northern Ireland’s peace deal.