The UK will refuse to comply with the new EU rules on having a single charger that works on all mobile phones.
The government said it was “currently not considering” matching EU legislation for a common phone charger for devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops and possibly laptops.
This position means that Apple iPhone chargers will be banned in Northern Ireland, but not in the rest of the UK, due to the Brexit treaty that created the Irish sea border.
The Northern Ireland Protocol means that the province continues to follow some single market rules, including the Radio Equipment Directive, to avoid the need for a hard Irish border.
EU law means portable devices will have to be powered by a Type C USB charger by 2024. Brussels said it would reduce e-waste by 11,000 tonnes a year and save consumers £ 213 million a year. .
EU law will hit Apple hardest, with its own “lightning connector”. The company says the ban will stifle innovation.
Apple could enforce EU smartphones in the UK to simplify processes, or it could supply fully EU phones in Northern Ireland to avoid any customs controls at the border. Ireland.
Growing tensions over the Northern Ireland Protocol
The United Kingdom has demanded that Brussels accept a new system of dual regulation in talks on the Protocol, which gives Northern Ireland access to both the EU market and the United Kingdom.
It would allow manufacturers the option to manufacture products in Northern Ireland according to UK or EU standards. However, Brussels is concerned that non-compliant goods may cross the invisible border into EU member Ireland.
Tensions between the UK and the EU are rising ahead of the planned release of legislation to unilaterally overturn parts of the Protocol this week or next. Brussels has warned that this would violate international law and risk a trade war.
The government insists the bill is legal, despite reports that one of its top legal advisers has warned that it would violate international law.
Brussels has blocked the UK’s associated membership of the € 95 billion EU Horizon program due to the deadlock in the Protocol.
The UK agreed to pay £ 15bn over seven years to join the scheme as part of the Brexit deal.
The UK should use the billions to establish its own rival scheme after Horizon membership has become a “political football” for the past 18 months, a senior Oxford professor has said.
Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, said: “I am not sure we would be much worse off, and in fact we could be better off if we only set up our own program.”
In a speech in Brussels on Wednesday, Science Minister George Freeman warned that the UK was willing to do so unless the EU put science above politics.
In the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Micheal Martin, the Irish Prime Minister, warned that breaking the Protocol would be “a historic low point” and “deeply damaging”.