Post-brexit trade deal depends on respect for Good Friday Agreement, Biden warns
JOE BIDEN, the US Democratic presidential nominee, last night said he would not allow the Good Friday Agreement to become a “casualty of Brexit” if he is elected president.
Mr Biden waded into the issue as Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary, told US politicians during a trip to Washington that Britain’s support for the peace accord with Northern Ireland was “absolute”.
“We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” tweeted the former vicepresident, who is going up against President Donald Trump in November.
He warned that any trade deal between the US and UK “must be contingent upon respect for the agreement and preventing the return of a hard border.”
Mr Biden’s comments following a meeting between Mr Raab and Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, who said if the UK “violates its international agreements” and Brexit “undermines the Good Friday accord”, there will be “absolutely no chance of a US-UK trade agreement passing the Congress”.
Mrs Pelosi said the lower house of Congress, which is currently controlled by her party, would defend the 1998 agreement as a “beacon of hope for peace-loving people throughout the whole world”. Mr Raab is in on a charm offensive in Washington DC designed to ease concerns over Boris Johnson’s recent Brexit talk moves.
Accusations that Mr Johnson was breaking international law and undermining Northern Irish peace by changing parts of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement have become wrapped up in UK-US trade deal talks in America.
The Internal Market Bill aims to make it easier to transport goods between the four nations, raising concerns that a hard border will be imposed on the island of Ireland.
Democrats have warned any undercutting of the Good Friday Agreement could see them veto the UK-US trade deal currently being negotiated.
Any such deal will only become law when ratified by the two wings of the US Congress, the Senate and the House. The Democrats hold a majority in the House.
Asked if the Government had jeopardised a trade deal, Mr Raab blamed Brussels and repeated Britain’s support for the Good Friday Agreement.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for me to be clear that the threat to the Good Friday Agreement as it’s reflected in the Northern Ireland protocol has come from the EU’S politicisation of the issue,” Mr Raab said.
“Our commitment to the Good Friday Agreement and to avoid any extra infrastructure at the border between the north and south is absolute.”