As Brexit deadlines loom, the posturing and bickering flare again

“They would say: ‘You’re refusing to implement the agreement we already have. How we can negotiate a new agreement with you?’ ” said Sam Lowe, an expert on trade at the Centre for European Reform, a research group in London. British officials played down suggestions that they plan to rip up the agreement. Mr Lowe said he viewed it less as an effort to renege than to increase Britain’s leverage by asserting that it is in the driver’s seat. He said any changes would be likely to apply to bureaucratic procedures, like whether companies must file a declaration for goods they ship from Northern Ireland to Britain.