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FALMUTH, England – For British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the G7 summit he hosted over the weekend was a major opportunity to highlight the United Kingdom’s ambitions on the world stage, and decisively put its years within the European Union behind them.
But he could not fully achieve this. Controversy over Brexit entered the meeting, coloring what appeared to be a widely successful summit.
The UK left the bloc last year after the 2016 Brexit referendum, and at the beginning of this year it left the bloc’s customs union and single market. This triggered a complex deal to manage trade and maintain peace in post-Brexit Northern Ireland that has since been the subject of a tense dispute between Mr Johnson’s government and the EU.
The so-called Irish Protocol avoided a border on the island of Ireland by creating an economic border in the Irish Sea with customs and regulatory checks on goods sent to Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom and with duties imposed on some products.
Mr Johnson says carrying out the deal threatens the UK’s territorial integrity; The European Union, including Ireland, says Mr Johnson has signed the agreement, so he must implement what he agreed to.
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Greater coverage of the G7 meeting, handpicked by Wall Street Journal editors.
On Saturday, the leaders of Germany, France and the European Union met with Mr Johnson and brought up the issue in bilateral meetings. President Biden has made maintaining peace on the island of Ireland a key part of the joint statement he issued with Mr Johnson late last week. While officials said the matter was hardly discussed at round tables, British commanders and others were frequently asked about the standoff.
“We will do whatever is necessary to protect the territorial integrity of the United Kingdom,” Johnson said. He was looking to downplay the disagreement, saying it was a “fading small part of our deliberations” during the G-7 meeting.
“This is about UK integrity, but deals must be respected,” said Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, one of the five leaders from the European Union at the summit.
The row shows how Brexit risks overshadowing Britain’s efforts on the world stage. While the G7 has proven to be a largely cordial relationship, Mr Johnson has at times cut an aloof personality. While President Biden has reaffirmed the special relationship with Britain, he has demonstrated a close partnership with French President Emmanuel Macron and described the EU as “incredibly strong and vital”.
The Northern Ireland deal actually places Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the UK, within the EU’s customs area and its single market, which is its own harmonized regulation area. This unusual arrangement, according to the agreement, requires checks to be carried out in the Irish Sea to trace products entering the European Union.
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Diplomatic spat is approaching sausage. The European Union allows imports of frozen processed meat only from outside the single market. For now, it is allowed to sell raw sausage meat and chicken nuggets from Britain to Northern Ireland as a phased Brexit deal is being implemented. Later this month, that grace period ends and unfrozen British sausages may no longer travel through the Irish Sea.
Mr Johnson has hinted that his government may unilaterally extend the grace period to allow meat to continue moving freely. The EU says the UK must stick to the rules and has threatened tariffs if it doesn’t. Talks are still underway to find a solution. The European Union has suggested that Britain should align its food safety rules with EU rules to remove meat restrictions. Britain says it does not want to be bound by EU rules.
Officials said US diplomats raised the Irish issue with their British counterparts before the G7. Fearing widespread criticism from European Union members of the G7, Johnson brought his secretary on Brexit, David Frost, to the event.
Officials said the Northern Ireland issue was discussed during European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s meeting with Mr Johnson, but neither side believed the G7 was the right place to address those concerns.
During a bilateral meeting with Macron, Johnson indicated that the French president would find it unacceptable if courts halted the movement of sausages made in Toulouse, southwest France, to other parts of his country, officials said.
Mr Macron said the Toulouse sausage comparison was irrelevant and that the focus should be on G7 issues, according to a French official.
At the end of the summit, Mr Macron bemoaned the continuing conflict and said the UK must stick to its commitments. “No one has made the other countries spend so much time on their sovereignty,” he said.
Write to Max Colchester at [email protected]
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