EU officials said Thursday, any breach of the Withdrawal Agreement could give the bloc grounds to take legal action, according to Reuters.
A note was reportedly distributed to the each of the member states saying the Withdrawal Agreement gives either party up to four years to launch a challenge.
An anonymous source also told the wire agency that Britain would fail if it tries to use a potential breach to win an advantage in trade talks.
Concerns have arisen since the UK government published its Internal Market Bill it says will protect the country’s internal market and the Good Friday Agreement.
The protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement around Northern Ireland in question is to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
But the new bill gives UK ministers powers to “disapply” rules around the movement of goods if a trade deal isn’t reached.
Critics say it could breach international law by breaking the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, now an international treaty.
Measures under the bill could include tariffs being paid on all goods going across the border between Northern Ireland and Britain. Although a later bill may give Ministers powers on determining goods “at risk” of being exported to the EU and slapping duties on those.
Maros Sefcovic, the European commission’s Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, arrived in London Thursday to speak with Cabinet Minister Michael Gove on what the Government intends with the new bill.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the government should consider “the reputational risk that it’s taking in the proposed way forward”.
Across the Atlantic, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said an agreement between the two countries could be off the table, “If the UK violates that international treaty and Brexit undermines the Good Friday accord, there will be absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress.”
Trade talks between the UK and the EU continued Thursday.
