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Protest sign on the border between British Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland
Photo: Peter Morrison / AP
The USA is currently unilaterally imposing import duties on metals against the former EU member Great Britain.
According to a report in the Financial Times, this will continue until the tense Northern Ireland issue has been resolved.
Talks about easing tariffs on aluminum and steel would not progress, the newspaper reports, citing an employee of the US Department of Commerce.
The government of the former US President Donald Trump introduced tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from the European Union (EU) in 2018. The tariffs were lifted this October but remain in effect for the UK due to its exit from the EU. Germany rejects a renegotiation of the Northern Ireland Protocol requested by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
According to the Financial Times, the US Congress has concerns that Great Britain might exercise the Article 16 emergency clause.
The law allows parts of the Brexit deal, which introduced some controls on the movement of goods from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland, to be suspended if these lead to persistent difficulties.
The controls are necessary to avoid the introduction of a hard border between the British province and the EU member Ireland.
The United States has raised serious concerns that disagreements between the London and Brussels governments over the implementation of the 2020 Brexit Treaty could undermine the peace deal that ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
mrc / Reuters