US politicians warn UK they will block trade deal if Brexit threatens Irish border

US Congressional leaders and diplomats have warned Britain that Congress would block a future UK-US trade deal if Brexit jeopardises peace in Northern Ireland.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is touting a US trade deal as a way to offset the negative economic cost of leaving the European Union, and while US President Donald Trump has said they will make a “substantial” trade agreement, the Democratic-majority House of Representatives has the ability to block any deal that threatens the Good Friday Agreement or brings back a border in Ireland. 

“The American dimension to the Good Friday agreement is indispensable,” Representative Richard Neal (D-MA) told the Guardian. “I would have little enthusiasm for entertaining a bilateral trade agreement with the UK, if they were to jeopardise the agreement.”

Neal is part of the Friends of Ireland caucus in Congress and is chair of the Committee on Ways and Means, the tax-writing committee of the House. The committee oversees all trade agreements as part of its tax jurisdiction.

Neal’s comments echo those made by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who warned the UK that Congress would not endorse a trade deal if the Good Friday Agreement is jeopardised. 

“We made it clear in our conversations with senior members of the Conservative Party earlier this year that there should be no return to a hard border on the island. That position has not changed,” she told the Irish Times last week. “Any trade deal between the US and Great Britain would have to be cognisant of that.”

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland after decades of conflict. It mandated that the UK and Irish governments support a power-sharing deal between unionist and nationalists in Northern Ireland, and the open border is a key part of the agreement. 

Since assuming the role of UK prime minister, Johnson has demanded the Northern Ireland ‘backstop’ (which maintains an open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) be eliminated from the withdrawal deal with the EU, saying he will only negotiate if that is the case. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier rejected Johnson’s demand, saying it is incompatible with the agreed Brexit negotiating mandate. 

Downing Street told reporters on Tuesday that the government “will never put physical checks or physical infrastructure on the border,” but should the UK leave the EU without reaching an agreement on a transition deal, a hard border for customs control could return to Ireland. 

The ‘Ad Hoc Committee to Protect the Good Friday Agreement’, which is made up of 40 Irish-American politicians and business leaders, has also written a letter to Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith expressing its concerns about the border. 

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