UK's Gove: Serious problems with Northern Ireland trade, grace period must be extended

LONDON (Reuters) - British Minister Michael Gove said there were serious problems with the post-Brexit arrangements for trade with Northern Ireland and called for an extension of the grace periods currently relaxing some rules.

"In the short term there are a number of issues which I would not describe as teething problems - they are significant issues which bear on the lives of people in Northern Ireland, which do need to be resolved," Gove told parliament.

"We do need to make sure that grace periods are extended, we do need to make sure that supermarkets and other traders can continue, as they are at the moment, to be able to supply consumers with the goods that they need."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by William James, editing by Estelle Shirbon)