Brexit: Buckland says power to override Withdrawal Agreement is 'insurance policy' - BBC News

The UK has insisted there must be no new checks on goods moving from Northern Ireland to Great Britain when it leaves the EU's single market and customs union on 1 January.

The Internal Markets Bill, to be debated by MPs on Monday, would give ministers the power to reduce the amount of paperwork that Northern Irish firms have to fill in on goods bound for the mainland, such as export and exit declarations, or to remove the need for them entirely.

It is controversial because it would change the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol, a crucial part of the legally-binding Withdrawal Agreement agreed by both sides prior to the UK's exit from the EU on 31 January.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the EU is interpreting the Protocol in a way that would impose a customs border in the Irish Sea, separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the EU could not have been "clearer" when the two sides agreed the Brexit withdrawal agreement last year what the implications would be for Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

But Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said the UK would be "reneging" on legally-binding commitments if the bill passed and rejected as "completely bogus" claims the Withdrawal Agreement was a threat to its territorial integrity and the Northern Irish peace process.

A 'third country' basically refers to any country outside the EU, and in this case outside its economic structures - the single market and the customs union

Businesses in a third country have to fill in customs declarations, for example, when they import from and export to the EU - whether there is a trade agreement or not

And because under the terms of the EU withdrawal agreement Northern Ireland will stay within the rules of the EU single market, but the rest of the UK will not, that could mean no food imports from Great Britain to Northern Ireland

The row over third country listing has become linked to the row over the government's Single Market Bill, even though the proposed legislation doesn't mention third country listing directly