The ongoing saga to find a solution to the Northern Ireland protocol may be announced as soon as this week. The UK and the EU have been in talks for more than a year to try to resolve issues with the protocol, a controversial set of post-Brexit trade rules that kept Northern Ireland in the EU as a way to preserve the peace deal with the Republic of Ireland. The protocol came into place at the start of 2021 and since then has caused headaches for the UK and EU due to the checks and controls which has led to delays in delivering goods. Ending the impasse would enable the UK to reset relations with the EU, its biggest trading partner, more than the three years after Britain formally left the bloc and nearly seven years since the Brexit referendum.