Kylie MacLellan, Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters), – British Brexit minister David Frost suggested Wednesday that Brussels should remain calm in the face of London’s threat to escalate a post Brexit dispute.

Frost stated that he was not ready to abandon talks for a resolution, but he reiterated the possibility of Britain triggering emergency unilateral provisions under the Brexit agreement. This warning has only increased tensions.

Frost said to the upper chamber of parliament that “they seem to be saying that it would be completely unreasonable for the British Government to use these wholly valid safeguard provisions… They also suggest that we cannot take that action at a price of massive, disproportionate retaliation.”

“I recommend that European friends keep their cool and be fair.”

Britain, which voted to leave the EU last January, has rejected to put in place border checks for Northern Ireland. It did this to avoid creating a new hard border between Britain and EU member Ireland. London claims that the checks are unreasonable and pose a threat to Northern Ireland’s 1998 ceasefire.

For its single market with 450 millions of people, the EU believes that tighter controls will be necessary.

Simon Coveney (Irish Foreign Minister) suggested that Article 16 could be invoked by either party to initiate unilateral action if it is deemed to have a negative effect on its interests. In this case, 2020’s trade deal with China would need to be cancelled.

Frost will be meeting with Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s Maros, on Friday to discuss further. He said that triggering Article 16 is not inevitable, but could represent Britain’s best option.

While there has been a narrowing of the EU-Britain gap, it still remains very large, he stated, noting that only a “short number” of weeks had passed and that many possibilities remained which were not being seriously explored.

Frost explained that “there is still the opportunity to move past these difficulties and turn away from confrontation.”

“There’s more work to do, and I won’t give up until it becomes clear that there is no more possible. “We are not there yet.”