evidence: In November 2020, Boris Johnson declared that nothing could stop "the Great British sausage from making it to Belfast". This was in response to reports that the Protocol on Ireland-Northern Ireland, the agreement governing the trading relationship between Northern Ireland and the EU, would effectively ban sausages from being imported to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. Now, talks on how to solve this dispute are making little progress ahead of a key deadline, stoking fears of a "sausage war". [...] However, in December 2020 the EU and the UK agreed on a grace period, starting on January 1 and ending July 1 2021, during which chilled meat products from the rest of the UK could access the Northern Ireland market subject to certain conditions. [...] As things stand, chilled meat products from the rest of the UK would be barred from accessing the Northern Ireland market from July 2021 onwards. The UK has offered to unilaterally extend the grace period – but an extension would clearly be in breach of the legally-binding commitments the UK has made under the Protocol.