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The Brexit dispute between Britain and the EU is reaching a critical point. On Thursday, top negotiators from both sides will meet for the last day of their round of talks on a trade pact. It is the eighth round of negotiations; little progress has been made in the previous seven. The chances of a successful trade pact have likely been further reduced: because the British government surprisingly announced that it wanted to make changes to the current Brexit deal.
The content deals with contractual clauses on Northern Ireland. In reality, they are supposed to prevent a fixed border from developing between the British part of Northern Ireland and the EU state Ireland and the old hostilities from breaking out again. However, the British government has announced that it will pass a new law that could partially undo the binding international agreement with the EU on Northern Ireland.
The corresponding internal market bill was presented to Parliament on Wednesday. Northern Ireland Minister Brandon Lewis had previously confirmed to stumped MPs in the House of Commons that the law would not only undermine part of the Brexit deal, it would even violate international law. The project received strong criticism from the opposition, some of the ruling conservatives, representatives of the EU and also from the business sector.
The EU is now receiving surprisingly clear support from a direction in which Brexit supporters are looking with great hope: the United States. Brexiters had always argued that they wanted to conclude a comprehensive free trade agreement with the United States immediately. However, the negotiations never really got off the ground.
It could go on like this, at least if the British government breaks the Brexit deal. A trade deal between the United States and Britain will have “absolutely no chance” in Congress, Nancy Pelosi told The Irish Times. Democrat Pelosi is the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. The United States Congress would have to pass such a trade deal, and with its majority in the House of Representatives, the Pelosi Democrats could block it.
Pelosi sees Boris Johnson’s actions as a threat to peace in Northern Ireland, particularly the so-called Good Friday Agreement. It will not allow Brexit “in any way to jeopardize the Good Friday Agreement, including the stability achieved by the invisible and frictionless border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland,” Pelosi said.
An aide to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had previously made a similar statement.
