A CRUCIAL round of negotiations to try to resolve the issue of a post-Brexit border between Northern Ireland and the neighboring Irish Republic are to be held tomorrow in Brussels, Britain’s Department for Exiting the European Union said Monday.

The future of the 500-km border between the two is one of the biggest unresolved issues as Theresa May’s government seeks to find a way of ensuring a frictionless border on the island of Ireland.

Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier will not be taking part in the new round of discussions. Instead high ranking negotiators from both sides will seek a way through the current deadlock.

On Friday the negotiations will switch to a proposed future relationship between Britain and the EU’s remaining 27 member states after next March.

Meanwhile, new figures Monday from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed the Irish Republic accounts for 27 percent of Northern Ireland’s international export trade. The United States accounted for 25 percent, making it Northern Ireland’s second-biggest international export partner.

Northern Ireland’s biggest export across the border into Ireland was food and live animals, particularly dairy products, which represented 33 percent of total exports to the Irish Republic.

More than two-thirds (68 percent) of exporting businesses in Northern Ireland were small companies employing up to 49 workers.

Commentators in Britain and Ireland have warned that a no-deal Brexit could have serious consequences for industries that have extensive cross-border supply chains.

Last month May made her first visit to the Irish border since the 2016 Brexit referendum. She held talks with workers and business representatives from both sides of the border.

Media reports in Brussels said that EU negotiator Barnier had rejected key elements of Britain’s new trade proposals outlined in May’s blueprint for a future post-Brexit trading relationship with the bloc.

Barnier made clear British offers to collect customs duties for the EU as part of efforts to avoid friction on Northern Ireland’s new EU border had failed to convince already skeptical Europeans.

Both sides are aiming to have a draft deal in place by October, but observers fear a no-deal outcome is looking increasingly possible.

(Xinhua)