The European Union is expected to launch legal action against the UK government over its decision to scrap some post-Brexit trade arrangements.
Ministers maintained that current checks on some goods travelling from Great Britain to Northern Ireland must end to avoid harm to the peace process.
The Northern Ireland Protocol is the part of the Brexit deal which keeps the country in EU’s single market for goods.
Following elections in Northern Ireland last month, the Democratic Unionist Party is refusing to serve in a power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein until the protocol is changed.