A proposal by the EU to make a 50% cut in customs formalities on goods moving from Britain to Northern Ireland become a legal obligation, RTÉ News understands.

EU negotiators want the offer to be legally enshrined in a formal co-decision with the UK in order to remove any doubt that the offer to cut customs formalities is meaningful.

The Northern Ireland Protocol requires checks and controls on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland so as to avoid the need for a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The UK and unionists want the Protocol to be renegotiated or scrapped altogether because of the disruption to trade and the impact on the unionist sense of identity.

The UK's chief negotiator David Frost has so far dismissed the EU's offer to cut formalities by 50%, arguing that it would not represent a significant cut in the process of moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

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