Biden warns Johnson: Brexit row threatens chances of prized UK-US trade deal
- UK PM Boris Johnson has proposed a contested law that could leave Britain and EU without a divorce deal
- US Democrats warn stalemate could end prospects of a US-UK trade deal coveted by Johnson’s government
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said a UK-US trade agreement depends on the continued respect for the Northern Ireland peace process, a warning to Boris Johnson as he moves to break international law over Brexit and the province.
“We can’t allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,” Biden said on Twitter. “Any trade deal between the US and UK must be contingent upon respect for the Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period.”
Biden’s intervention shows how Johnson’s proposal to unilaterally override the Brexit divorce treaty signed with the EU is having international repercussions, and making a transatlantic free-trade agreement politically more tricky.
Biden shared a strongly-worded letter signed by four senior members of Congress, which urged Johnson to “abandon any and all legally questionable and unfair efforts” to breach its agreement with the EU.
“The United States Congress will not support any free trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom if the United Kingdom fails to preserve the gains of the Good Friday Agreement and broader peace process,” the letter said. “If these reported plans were to go forward, it would be difficult to see how these conditions could be met.”