Boris Johnson piled pressure on Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol today as the Foreign Secretary prepares for a showdown with the EU’s Brexit chief.
Liz Truss and her bloc counterpart Maros Sefocvic are due to hold phone talks amid growing tensions over the controversial border arrangements.
Both sides have put forward suggestions for breaking the deadlock. But the EU has refused to reopen the Protocol.
In a sign of mounting No10 frustration towards Brussels, the Prime Minister’s spokesman said: “It remains a very serious situation.
“Our preference still remains, obviously, to reach a negotiated solution but we have been doing this for 16 months and we have worked incredibly hard to try and make the Protocol in its existing form work.”
He added: “We still see played out the significant challenges faced by businesses both in Northern Ireland and elsewhere.
“The EU have confirmed they will never change their mandate despite the fact the Protocol is presenting significant challenges in its current form, and so we reserve the right to take further action if solutions can’t be found urgently.”
The UK is thought to be drawing up plans for legislation to override parts of the deal, which the PM signed in 2020 so Britain could quit the EU after the 2016 referendum.
It would scrap checks on goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland - effectively ripping up the Protocol, which prevents a hard border with the Republic.
The 310-mile frontier is the UK's only land boundary with the EU.
Axing the mechanism would trigger fresh claims Mr Johnson cannot be trusted.
US President Joe Biden ’s administration intervened to urge Brussels and London to keep negotiating.
A White House spokesman said: "We recognise that there have been challenges over the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol and that talks continue between the UK and EU to resolve these issues.
"The best path forward is a pragmatic one that requires courage, cooperation and leadership.
“We urge the parties to continue engaging in dialogue to resolve differences and bring negotiations to a successful conclusion.”
Unionists say a border has effectively been created in the Irish Sea, hampering trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland because of checks on some goods.
Experts fear it jeopardises the fragile 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to The Troubles.
The ongoing dispute has fuelled political paralysis in Northern Ireland.
Unionists have refused to take their seats at the Stormont Assembly until the Protocol row is resolved.
Speaking at a press conference alongside Swedish PM Magdalena Andersson at her Harpsund country retreat today, Mr Johnson said: "The most important agreement is the 25-year-old Belfast Good Friday agreement.
“That is crucial for the stability of our country of the UK, of Northern Ireland - and it's got to be that means that things have got to command cross-community support.
“Plainly the Northern Ireland Protocol fails to do that and we need to sort it out."
Mr Johnson urged the EU not to create any "drama" over the Protocol.
Speaking in Sweden, the PM told BBC News: "Let's face it, we're talking about - really in the scheme of things - a very, very small part of the whole European economy and I think 0.4% of the value of the whole of the EU economy in Northern Ireland.
“It is crazy - I didn't think there's any need for drama, this is something that just needs to be fixed."
Downing Street refused to say whether preparations have been made for a possible trade war with the bloc.
The PM's spokesman insisted: "We want nothing but good relations with our EU partners."
He said "some relatively minor concessions" from the EU in the past "show that where there was willing, change could be achieved".
