UK’s Sunak tries to win over skeptics to his Brexit deal
Associated PressLONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Belfast on Tuesday to sell his landmark agreement with the European Union to its toughest audience: Unionist politicians who fear post-Brexit trade rules are weakening Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. Instead, there are checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K. That angered British unionist politicians in Belfast, who say the new trade border in the Irish Sea undermined Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom. Speaking at a Coca-Cola factory near Belfast, Sunak said Northern Ireland was now “the world’s most exciting economic zone” — part of the U.K.'s internal market but also with access to the EU’s vast single market of 27 nations for trade in goods. The U.K. says the EU’s acceptance of the “Stormont Brake” emergency mechanism — which gives Northern Ireland politicians a way to challenge future EU goods rules — was a major breakthrough.