UK trade hit hard as Brexit crisis deepens The economic dislocation caused by Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) is making itself felt, threatening serious political consequences for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government and the Brexit agreement. At the centre of the crisis is Northern Ireland. According to the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed between the UK and the EU, Northern Ireland remains within the EU’s single market for goods, meaning import and export checks must be carried out on goods travelling between Britain and Northern Ireland. This effectively placed a customs border down the Irish Sea, rather than between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland—an EU member state—which would have compromised the Good Friday Agreement ending the armed conflict in the northern six counties.