UK, EU meet as gloom grows over post-Brexit trade feud

LONDON (AP) — Top U.K. and European Union officials are meeting Friday to try to resolve their intractable Northern Ireland trade spat, with alarm growing in Europe that Britain plans to suspend parts of the legally binding divorce agreement between the two sides.

That would trigger EU retaliation and could spiral into a trade war between the 27-nation bloc and its increasingly estranged former member.

The two sides’ top Brexit officials — David Frost for Britain and Maros Sefcovic for the EU — are meeting in London after four weeks of negotiations failed to bridge gaps over Northern Ireland trade.

The U.K. has threatened to trigger an emergency break clause in the deal that lets either side suspend the agreement in extreme circumstances. That would bring legal action from the EU, and potentially damaging economic sanctions.

Frost warned Wednesday that the emergency clause, Article 16, “will be our only option” if there is no breakthrough in the talks.

“There is more to do and I will certainly not give up on this process unless and until it is abundantly clear that nothing more can be done,” he told members of Parliament’s upper chamber, the House of Lords. “We are certainly not there yet.”

Northern Ireland is part of the U.K. and shares a border with EU member Ireland. Under the Brexit deal it remains inside the EU’s tariff-free single market for goods, to ensure there is an open border on the island of Ireland — a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process. That has created a new customs border in the Irish Sea for goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the U.K., even though they are part of the same country.

That has brought red tape for businesses, and has angered Northern Ireland’s British Unionists, who say the checks undermine Northern Ireland’s...