Northern Ireland’s DUP: New deal does give Stormont ability to apply brake

© Thomson Reuters FILE PHOTO: Britain publishes post-Brexit legislation on the Northern Ireland Protocol

LONDON (Reuters) – The leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said a new provision to stop new European Union trade rules from applying to goods in Northern Ireland did appear to give its Stormont regional assembly the ability to apply a brake.

“I do think that what has been proposed at first reading does give Stormont the ability to apply the brake where the application of EU law for the purposes of facilitating cross-border trade impacts on our ability to trade with the rest of the United Kingdom,” Jeffrey Donaldson told BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday.

“I have said that progress has been made. We continue to have some concerns,” he said of the new post-Brexit deal struck between Britain and the EU on Monday.

The Stormont brake, unveiled as part of the deal, enables the British government to stop new EU laws from applying to goods in Northern Ireland if requested by a third of lawmakers in Stormont, the British province’s regional assembly.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, Editing by Kylie MacLellan)