On Wednesday, the EU is poised to take legal action against the UK government for scrapping several post-Brexit trade agreements.
To avoid jeopardizing the peace process, ministers urge that present curbs on some products traveling from the United Kingdom to Northern Ireland be lifted.
On Monday, they released a legislative measure aiming at nullifying portions of the EU pact agreed in 2020.
However, Brussels claims that breaking the agreement is against international law. The Northern Ireland Protocol is a provision of the Brexit agreement that ensures Northern Ireland's continued access to the EU's single market for goods.
This avoids a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, including inspections on people and goods movement, which both the UK and the EU wish to avoid in order to keep the peace.
Instead, it implies that some products coming in Northern Ireland from other areas of the UK will be subject to inspection. Unionists in Northern Ireland are opposed to this, claiming that it will establish a commercial border in the Irish Sea and might lead to the UK's disintegration.
The Democratic Unionist Party has refused to participate in a power-sharing administration with Sinn Fein unless the protocol is amended, after elections in Northern Ireland last month.
Other Northern Irish parties, such as Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party, and the SDLP, accept the accord as it is.
The UK government has stated that it would prefer to work with the EU on modifications to the convention rather than acting alone.
"We've been acting in good faith in these negotiations," Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, "but the fundamental issues that are affecting political stability in Northern Ireland are in the text of the protocol, and what we need is the EU to agree to change the text of the protocol."
"Otherwise, the discussions will fail." We've hit a stalemate because we can't resolve the basic concerns of customs and VAT that are costing us the support of Northern Ireland's unionist population."
Measures outlined in the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, including the notion of "green lanes" and "red lanes" for commerce, are at the heart of the UK government's attempt to reduce the effect on companies.