Most checks on food products being shipped to, and remaining in, Northern Ireland from Great Britain will be scrapped under new proposals from the EU.

That is according to Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, who said it was a “major effort” to address the post-Brexit trade rules between GB and Northern Ireland.

The UK says the rules impose too many barriers. The proposals will be published later.

Mr Coveney said this was a “major intervention” by Brussels to deal with the concerns raised about the Northern Ireland Protocol.

At the start of the year, the new post-Brexit arrangement – known as the Northern Ireland Protocol – was introduced to help prevent checks along the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

It involves keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods – but this, in turn, creates a new trade border with Great Britain. Unionists say this undermines their place in the UK.

On Tuesday, the UK’s Brexit minister Lord Frost proposed plans for an entirely new protocol to replace the existing one.

He said his proposed text would amend the Northern Ireland Protocol and support the Good Friday Agreement.

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