NI Protocol dispute ‘not a real crisis’, leader of US delegation says

The impasse over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol is “not a real crisis”, a senior US Congressman has insisted. Richard Neal said the deadlock was instead a “problem to be solved” after he and fellow members of a Congressional delegation held talks with Stormont’s five main parties in Belfast. Powersharing in Northern Ireland is on ice after the DUP refused to re-establish a devolved executive following the recent Assembly election in protest at arrangements that have created economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.