On March 3 the U.K. decided to unilaterally extend a grace period until October on checks for goods moving between Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom but remained part of the EU’s single market for goods after Brexit to avoid a hard border that could revive sectarian violence. That would have drawn a hard border on the island of Ireland - exactly the scenario the Brexit deal was crafted to avoid. Only last week, the leaders of the EU and the U.K. went head-to-head in an angry exchange over vaccine exports. Already uneasy bedfellows during Britain’s 47 years of EU membership, relations have worsened since the 2016 referendum when the United Kingdom voted to leave the bloc.

Source: ABC News March 15, 2021 13:20 UTC