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Liz Truss has been announced as the winner of the Conservative party leadership contest and will take over as Prime Minister from Boris Johnson on Tuesday.
The incoming Prime Minister is the outgoing Foreign Secretary, the UK cabinet minister with responsibility for managing the relationship with the EU.
It has been a strained relationship, particularly since, on her watch, the UK government has introduced legislation that is currently going through parliament that will unilaterally dismantle the Northern Ireland protocol agreed between the EU and UK as a prelude to the trade and co-operation agreement, which is the successor to EU membership for the UK in managing UK-EU trade.
Remain
During the referendum campaign in the UK, Liz Truss campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU, but she has subsequently embraced Brexit with enthusiasm and has led the UK hard-line opposition to the protocol.
This is a politically sensitive issue in Northern Ireland, as well as creating huge difficulties for personal purchases and supermarket supply lines for goods of animal or plant origin.
From a farmers' perspective either side of the border, the protocol has worked effectively and has enabled cross-border trade to continue as it was before, when the UK was part of the EU.
Unless the UK and EU can find a way to compromise on the operation of the protocol, this trade will be in jeopardy and if a full-blown trade war is the consequence of a breakdown in negotiations, then all Irish agriculture exports to Britain, as well as cross-border trade, becomes exposed.
That nightmare scenario remains some way off and crises have always resulted in last-minute agreements up to this point, but the risk remains.
SHARING OPTIONS: