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Pelosi threatens Britain to break trade deal if Northern Ireland protocol is breached

2022-05-20T08:03:40.020Z


The British government wants to overturn the Brexit rules for Northern Ireland by means of a law. Now the United States is getting involved in the dispute – and is warning London of serious consequences.


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Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives

Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

The USA has taken sides in the Brexit dispute between Great Britain and the European Union – in favor of Brussels.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has warned of an escalation in the dispute over Northern Ireland's Brexit status.

If the British government does not comply with the protocols agreed with Brussels, it would also jeopardize free trade relations between the United States and Great Britain, it said in a statement.

If London decides to undermine the Northern Ireland agreement, the US Congress will not support a bilateral free trade agreement with the UK.

The British have been threatening for a long time to overturn the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol.

It is intended to avoid border controls between Northern Ireland (UK) and Ireland (EU member) in order to prevent conflicts between supporters and opponents of Irish unity.

In return, however, a customs border has been created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

The British government and the Protestant Unionist party DUP therefore fear that Northern Ireland will become alienated from London.

However, Brussels strictly refuses to change the protocol.

If the British circumvent the protocol, the European Union would see this as a breach of international law - and threaten the consequences.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss recently announced a new law that would bypass the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Fear of trade war

Pelosi now fears a trade war.

Should the UK "choose to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, the US Congress cannot and will no longer support a free trade agreement with the UK".

In the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, the USA, Ireland and Great Britain settled the decades-long violent conflict in Northern Ireland.

In Pelosi's view, the new British law would again provoke tensions in the region.

The dispute over the protocol is currently causing political paralysis in Northern Ireland.

In protest against the Brexit rules agreed with the EU for Northern Ireland, the most important party on the Protestant Unionist side, the DUP, is refusing to work in the parliament of the British part of the country.

mrc/dpa

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-20

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