More data on trade flows with Northern Ireland has been submitted by Britain to the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.
The two sides are trying to reach an agreement on how to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
As reported by the Reuters news agency, London and Brussels want to avoid a hard border because it could undermine a 1998 peace agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict in the north. It is unclear how goods crossing the border in Ireland would be monitored once Britain has left the EU’s customs union and the single market.
EU officials have asked London for more trade data to try to work out whether most trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland passes through Dublin. If so, it would make it easier for the bloc to check the goods.
In a separate report, Bloomberg claimed that British Prime Minister Theresa May was preparing to make more concessions after her party’s conference later this month buoyed the pound.
However, a spokesman for May said he was not aware of the report, while another government source doubted its conclusions.
