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US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney, warned against creating a “hard border by accident” on the island of Ireland.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson proposes new legislation that would break Northern Ireland’s protocol to the Brexit divorce treaty that seeks to avoid a physical customs border on the island of Ireland.
“The Trump administration, the State Department and the US Congress would be aligned in the desire that the Good Friday Agreement be maintained so that the lack of a border is maintained,” Mulvaney said in an interview with the Financial Times.
His comment comes two days after US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden warned Britain that it must abide by the 1998 agreement as it is withdrawing from the European Union or there would be no separate trade agreement with the United States.
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Meanwhile, the head of the European Commission has said she is “convinced” that a trade deal is still possible with the UK, but called Johnson’s attempt to overturn the Brexit treaty a “nasty surprise”.
Ursula von der Leyen, in comments made to reporters yesterday, said the controversial Downing Street UK Internal Market Act had “heavily distracted” the two sides to secure new trade terms ahead of the looming deadline.
The post-Brexit transition period, during which relations between the EU and the UK have remained static, will end after December 31 and leaders on both sides of the Channel have warned that a deal is needed in October if you want to reach an agreement. ratified in time for the start of 2021.
With the cliff’s edge just a month away, Johnson has faced criticism domestically and globally for pursuing legislation that would challenge the Withdrawal Agreement negotiated with the EU last year, violating international law in the process.
Johnson was forced on Wednesday to agree to table an amendment to the internal market bill, giving MPs a vote before the government can use powers related to Northern Ireland that would violate the treaty.
But the compromise has not pushed Brussels back, and Eric Mamer, chief spokesman for the European Commission, told a news conference that his position had not changed and that he still wanted the offending clauses removed from the legislation.
Despite the dispute over the bill, which has been ridiculed by all living former prime ministers, dozens of senior Conservative MPs, Biden and Brussels, the commission’s chair, Ms Von der Leyen, said she was sure of it. that consensus on a future partnership with the UK could be reached.
It comes after he used his annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament on Wednesday to warn Johnson that the UK could not unilaterally annul the Withdrawal Agreement.
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