Joe Biden: Northern Ireland Protocol Must Not Be Sacrificed for Brexit

(Patria) – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden warned that the peace agreement for Ireland, which halted decades of violence in the country – must not become a 'sacrifice of Brexit'.

Biden added that any trade deal between the US and the UK must respect the Good Friday Agreement and avoid re-establishing a border on the island of Ireland at all costs.

Biden is not the only world politician to condemn the British government's new plan to grant legal powers to its ministers that would allow them to override and outvote parts of the legally binding Withdrawal Agreement with the EU.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is on a working visit to Washington, trying to convince US diplomats and politicians of the correctness of the British government's move. Raab claims that Britain is 'absolutely' committed to the Good Friday Agreement, while simultaneously accusing the EU of politicizing the issue of the Irish border.

Biden, who is of Irish-American descent, supported the warning from the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs via Twitter. 'We cannot allow the Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit,' Biden stated, adding that 'any trade deal between the US and the UK must be conditioned on respecting the Agreement and preventing the return of the border – period.'

The controversial British 'Internal Market' bill gives ministers powers to ignore parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement (Brexit), which has been ratified by both sides and registered as an international treaty.

The key issue of the peace agreement – the open border with the Republic of Ireland – in the context of Brexit means that Northern Ireland will continue to operate under some EU rules from 2021.

However, EU leaders fear that the British government's new plan, which Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims is necessary to preserve the integrity of Great Britain, jeopardizes the Good Friday Agreement by overriding some provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement.

Raab, who is trying to explain to American politicians that it is only about 'politicization by EU leaders,' claims that 'what we cannot allow is for the EU to establish a regulatory border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Britain.'

However, what Raab is ignoring is the fact that the regulatory 'filter' was a key part of the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, which Johnson celebrated as his own achievement when it was signed in October 2019. The issue of the Irish border itself led Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, to failure and consequently to her departure from office, as well as a long stalemate in negotiations between the two sides.

Besides Biden, other prominent Democrats are warning that the US will not enter into trade agreements with the UK if Brexit jeopardizes the Good Friday Agreement.

President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen warns that the Withdrawal Agreement 'cannot be unilaterally changed or discarded – it is a matter of law, trust, and good will.'