Pelosi Casts Doubt on US-UK Trade Deal After Brexit
Pelosi: ‘No chance whatsoever’ of trade deal if there is a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spoken against a trade deal with the United Kingdom if the country fails to solve the “hard border” issue between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland with the European Union before leaving the bloc.
Brussels wants the border between Ireland, an EU member state, and Northern Ireland, a part of the UK, to remain open after Brexit. The arrangement, also known as the “the backstop,” will allow the EU to dictate immigration and trade policies in Northern Ireland, a move that will erode British sovereignty over the region. Many Brexit supporters see the backstops as a tactic to shackle Britain to EU law and regulations.
Stung by the outcome of the 2016 referendum, the EU is determined to hurt and humiliate Britain. The EU’s insistence on keeping Northern Ireland within its folds could reignite the 30 year-long bloody sectarian conflict that ended with the 1998 Good Friday agreement.
“If there were to be any weakening of the Good Friday accords then there would be no chance whatsoever, a non starter, for a US-UK trade agreement,” Speaker Pelosi said at a lecture at the London School of Economics. “[I]t is very hard to pass a trade bill in the Congress of the United States, so it’s no given anyway,” she added.
British daily The London Times reported Pelosi’s remarks made on Monday:
Britain will have “no chance whatsoever” of striking a prized free trade agreement with the United States if Brexit damages the Good Friday agreement, Nancy Pelosi said last night.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives warned that such an accord would be “a non-starter” should the UK’s departure from the European Union threaten the treaty which ended conflict in Northern Ireland two decades ago.
Ms Pelosi, a Democrat, argued that a deal is “no given” because it requires congressional approval once negotiations are complete.
“If there were any weakening of the Good Friday accords there would be no chance whatsoever, a non-starter for a US-UK trade agreement,” she told an audience at the London School of Economics.
Pelosi’s remarks are in sharp contrast to the position taken by President Donald Trump’s administration. President was “eager for the will of the British people to be carried out, and he is even more eager to do a trade deal,” John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, told the British TV channel Sky News recently. “We are standing here waiting to make a trade deal with a UK independent of the EU,” he added.
Meanwhile, the British political class has joined hands with the unelected EU elite in attempts to overturn the Brexit vote. Last week, Prime Minister Theresa May’s government and the EU agreed to extend the Brexit deadline for three more months. Following the extension, the UK is obliged to hold the European elections next month, a move that will further bind the country to the bloc.
With leading Brexit campaigners sitting in the parliamentary back benches, as in the case of the Conservative Party or in the opposition, as in case of the UK Independence Party and Nigel Farage, the British ruling establishment is dominated by the pro-EU elites. There is little hope of Britain leaving the EU given the current leadership of the Conservative and Labour parties at the helm.
Trump: trade with UK will boost after Brexit
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Comments
Ms Pelosi, a Democrat, argued that a deal is “no given” because it requires congressional approval once negotiations are complete.
Since when?
Since always. Unless you can get 2/3 of the senate to ratify it as a treaty, which is generally harder.
Unless your name is John Kerry and you run to the UN in the middle of the night.
The UN cannot affect US law. Kerry’s Iran deal carefully involved only actions that 0bama had the power to do on his own, without anyone’s consent. That’s why the only way to stop it was for Congress to make a law forbidding it, and override a veto, which needed 2/3 of both chambers to pass. Had it contained provisions that were beyond the president’s power to implement it could have been stopped by a bare majority of the house plus 34 senators.
Is Pelosi attempting to influence foreign elections and policy? I am shocked! SHOCKED, I tell you.
John McCain in drag.
You hear that? All the Leftists wailing, “The Logan Act. Impeach. Lock her up!”
Me neither.
All I wonder is if taxpayers funded this overseas junket for Nanny to burp up her divisive, ignorant nonsense?
Not your call, Nancy.
President negotiates with foreign powers.
Senate ratifies agreements.
House shuts its mouth.
That is not how trade deals have been done, since at least WW2. Mostly because it’s usually harder to get 2/3 of the senate than to get a majority in both chambers.
I’m an originalist.
There’s nothing in the original constitution that says trade deals have to be passed as treaties.
Treaties are the only form of foreign relation besides war mentioned.
A ‘non-treaty deal’ seems like an end-run around the separation of powers.
UnCivilServant: Treaties are the only form of foreign relation besides war mentioned.
Article I, Section 8.
Why was it added in crayon?
/its a joke
It only “seems like an end-run around the separation of powers” if you don’t know what that term means.
The “Why was it in crayon” was a joke.
You get way to invested in online comments.
If the EU wants the border to be open, it can keep it open. It’s not the UK that insists on a hard border. It’s the EU that says if you don’t bind yourselves to our rules we won’t be able to keep the border open. OK, that makes perfect sense, if that’s how you feel about it do what you think you must do, but don’t pretend it’s not your decision. Don’t pretend the UK is forcing this on you.
Milhouse: If the EU wants the border to be open, it can keep it open. It’s not the UK that insists on a hard border.
There’s an open border in Ireland now. Brexit closes the border.
No, Brexit does not close the border. If Brexit happens with no deal, the EU will close the border. That is a perfectly reasonable thing for it to do, but if it doesn’t want to it doesn’t have to. Closing the border will be its decision, not the UK’s.
Milhouse: Brexit does not close the border.
Of course it does. Currently, U.K. has an agreement with the other nations of the E.U. for an open border. By withdrawing from that agreement, the border will no longer be open. That doesn’t preclude a new agreement, but it is U.K. which is withdrawing from the current agreement allowing the open border.
Garbage. Borders don’t close themselves. If neither the UK nor the EU closes the border it will remain open.
JusticeDelivered: There is no reason that the boarder has to be closed if Ireland and the UK want to keep it open.
That is incorrect. The Republic of Ireland is a member of the E.U. and has obligations to the E.U. They can’t unilaterally open their border to nations outside the E.U. That’s because once in the E.U. there is free movement, and such a policy would affect other members of the E.U.
That is entirely up to the EU. Borders don’t close themselves. Someone has to close them, so if neither the UK nor the EU does so it will remain open. It really is as simple as that. The UK doesn’t want to close the border, so it won’t. The EU is the one insisting that if there is no deal it will close the border. Very well; it has every right to do that. But nothing forces it to, so if it didn’t want to there would be no issue.
as for Ireland, if it wants to keep the border open it can do so and defy the EU. What will the EU do about it?
If the Good Friday accords reuire an open border then that binds Ireland just as much as it does the UK, so why should its obligations to the EU take priority?
Milhouse: as for Ireland, if it wants to keep the border open it can do so and defy the EU. What will the EU do about it?
If they simply defy the E.U., then they would be breaking their promise. They would have to withdraw from the E.U.
Milhouse: If the Good Friday accords reuire an open border then that binds Ireland just as much as it does the UK, so why should its obligations to the EU take priority?
The problem is with the U.K., which doesn’t want open borders, except when they do. They have themselves and their neighbors in a pickle.
EU bureaucrats are desperate to protect their gravy train and hold onto power. They are parasites on the people and need to have their power limited solely to trade, or be completely stripped of all their power.
Is Pelosi seriously challenging UK sovereignty over Northern Ireland?! If not, how is the hardness of the border any of the US’s business?
Milhouse: Is Pelosi seriously challenging UK sovereignty over Northern Ireland?!
No.
Milhouse: If not, how is the hardness of the border any of the US’s business?
The U.S. helped broker the peace in Ireland. One of the promises made by the parties was that the border would remain open. Brexit closes the border.
Rags-Rump, pull your head out of that dark spot. There is no reason that the boarder has to be closed if Ireland and the UK want to keep it open. It could be like travel between the US and Canada. In fact, it is easier to go into Canada than it is to come back most of the time.
The Talia Lavin of LI. What an idiot.
JusticeDelivered: There is no reason that the boarder has to be closed if Ireland and the UK want to keep it open.
That is incorrect. The Republic of Ireland is a member of the E.U. and has obligations to the E.U. They can’t unilaterally open their border to nations outside the E.U. That’s because once in the E.U. there is free movement, and such a policy would affect other members of the E.U.
Ireland could keep the border open without the EU’s approval. The EU would be angry about it, and might take action, but it couldn’t physically compel Ireland to close it. It’s not an occupying army.
But that is by the by, because the EU itself could decide not to close the border (i.e. not to order Ireland to close it). It is saying it won’t do that; that it will close the border. That’s fine, but let it not pretend it doesn’t want to. If it doesn’t want to, let it not.
Milhouse: Ireland could keep the border open without the EU’s approval. The EU would be angry about it, and might take action, but it couldn’t physically compel Ireland to close it.
For some reason, the Irish think keeping promises is important.
Milhouse: But that is by the by, because the EU itself could decide not to close the border (i.e. not to order Ireland to close it).
An open border between Ireland and U.K. would allow free movement of people between the E.U. and U.K., which is something U.K. doesn’t want. They want to square a circle.
No, Brexit does not close the border. It gives the EU a perfectly good reason to close the border, but the decision to do so rests entirely with the EU (assuming, of course, that the UK chooses not to).
One could just as well argue that if, as a result of Brexit, the EU decides to close the border, it is up to Ireland to leave the EU in order to keep it open.
In any event it is none of the US’s business.
Milhouse: Brexit does not close the border.
U.K. and E.U: Let’s have an open border. Agreed!
U.K: We’re pulling out of the agreement.
E.U: Oh well.
Keep in mind that it is U.K. that doesn’t want an open border. That’s one of the primary reasons for Brexit.
That is not true. The UK wants the border to remain open, it’s the EU that says if you pull out without an agreement we will close it.
You seem to think borders close themselves. They don’t. If nobody closes a border it is naturally open. If neither the UK nor Ireland closes the border it will remain open. People will be able to cross it because there will be nobody stopping them. It is perfectly reasonable for the EU to close the border, but that will be its decision.
Milhouse: The UK wants the border to remain open
No they don’t. One of the main purposes of Brexit was to stop the free movement of people from the E.U. into U.K. An open border in Ireland would allow travel from anywhere in the E.U. to U.K. What U.K. wants is free movement of Irish in Ireland, but not anyone else.
Ireland is not party to the Schengen Agreement.
Brit: Ireland is not party to the Schengen Agreement.
No, but the Republic of Ireland allows freedom of movement for citizens of the other EU member states. That means if there is no border within Ireland, someone can travel from the continent to the Republic of Ireland, then enter the U.K. without applying for immigration status. Many people who voted for Brexit did so to end open immigration from the E.U.
Brit: Ireland is not party to the Schengen Agreement.
Zachriel: No, but the Republic of Ireland allows freedom of movement for citizens of the other EU member states.
It doesn’t actually apart from the United Kingdom and Gibraltar under a bilateral agreement (the legal position of Gibraltar is not easy to understand. If EU countries allowed Freedom of Movement under its Treaties then there would have been no reason to introduce the Schengen Agreement. What both the United Kingdom and Ireland offer is a qualofied or restricted freedom of movement. The fact that members of EU states might cross into the United Kingdom from Ireland is fairly meaningless, they could enter the country as tourists anyway. The point is that they will be here illegally and if and when discovered, they are liable to be deported.
Zachriel: Many people who voted for Brexit did so to end open immigration from the E.U.
The main reason that we voted to leave the EU is that we wanted our country to be sovereign, we did not want to be subject to the EU. Control of immigration is part of this but it was not the main reason for the vote, rather like the opportunity to make our own trade deals.
Brit: Control of immigration is part of this but it was not the main reason for the vote
Data shows that negative views on immigration were strong predictors of Brexit support.
Brit: The point is that they will be here illegally and if and when discovered, they are liable to be deported.
Some have proposed an open border with enforcement after the fact, through work and welfare restrictions; but the Irish border is still an unsettled question.
The reason the N. Ireland party in a coalition with May’s Conservatives won’t support her backstop deals is because it puts a hard border “behind” N. Ireland between it and the UK rather than between N. Ireland and Ireland. Such an arrangement logically means N. Ireland would be trading with the rest of the U.K. as if it is a foreign country.
It’s not hard to see where that leads. “Well if you just abandoned the U.K. and joined Ireland…” Also, “Well if you just abandoned Brexit then all this would go away…” So it’s not seriously challenging U.K. sovereignty over Northern Ireland, as challenging U.K. sovereignty over the U.K.
Is this her attempt at supporting hard line Catholic/IRA types in Northern Ireland? I think more a peripheral issue to scotch Brexit.
Probably a distinction without a difference. We just call them Sinn Fein now to be nice, and more accurately, Catholics who want to reunify Ireland and who don’t particularly care what the Protestants among the Irish think about it.
Maybe Nancy wants to send Churchill’s Bust back to the EU. Nothing like telling the UK population they are deplorables
It is funny when you have deplorables telling everyone that they are deplorable because they have the gall to think for themselves.
Pelosi needs to stay in her lane. Also, why does the UK still have to own Northern Ireland? I don’t understand the drama, can’t it just go back to Ireland? Brexit and the EU should have no bearing on that.
The UK “owns” Northern Ireland largely because the Protestant Irish living in N. Ireland expect a cold, unforgiving and very hostile reception under united Catholic Irish rule and prefer the UK. I picked that up from reading one of Margaret Thatcher’s memoirs a couple of decades ago. (It was interesting.) But if Pelosi’s subtext is meant as, “Break the peace agreement and we’ll break you,” it complicates an already troublesome situation even further.
The UK doesn’t “own” Northern Ireland; NI is one of the constituent members of the UK.
and “give it back” to whom? NI never belonged to the Republic of Ireland. The Republic exists because the UK gave it the rest of the island. Giving it the north would be giving it away, not back. You might as well ask why Canada doesn’t give BC “back” to the US. It never belonged to the US, so it could only be given away, not back; and it doesn’t want to be given away. Nor does Northern Ireland.
Nothern Ireland can unite with the Republic at any time a majority of its electorate decides that it wants to do this. Personally I don’t think that it is in its interests to do so, but it is not my decision to make.
Nobody needs “trade deals” to trade. That’s just a canard from BIG GOVERNMENT.
Look up and watch “Brexit: The Movie”.
Canada has traded quite nicely with the EU for decades, and they only very recently concluded a “trade deal”.
Two things here. As noted above, in the absence of a specific trade agreement, between two or more nations, trade is inducted under the rules of the WTO. So, there is no need for s specific trade agreement between the US government and that of the UK. So, the Congress is out of the loop, unless Trump wants to bring them in by negotiating specific deal or treaty.
Second, UK has already pledged to honor all of the conditions agreed to under the Good Friday Agreement. One thing that has to be remembered, though, is that trade was not really stipulated, as both nations were members of the EU Customs Union, at the time, and were operating under EU rules, which prohibited “hard borders”. If that changes, it would not be a violation of the Good Friday Agreement, if the border between the UK and any EU nation were “hardened”.
It is interesting to note that the North Ireland Assembly has fallen into dysfunction and has NO executive. If one can not be formed, in a short time, administration of Northern Ireland will be assumed by Westminster per the Agreement. The Good Friday Agreement [aka the Belfast Agreement of 1998] was always doomed to failure, unless the UK relinquished control of Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland, which was the goal of the Irish from the get-go. Now, the Agreement is being used to try to stop Brexit and thwart the will of the British people.
What everyone may be missing, is that Pelosi is going to scuttle ANY Trade Deal that Trump makes with anybody.
This is just her current excuse
I think that it’s worth mentioning that the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland has two aspects.
First, citizens of Ireland and the UK can pass freely between the countries because of a bilateral agreement which predates all the EU and its forerunners, this will remain. In fact the Irish can live in the UK with the same rights as its citizens including an equal right to vote in all of its elections.
Secondly, the passage of goods raises difficulties. People in the UK who want to leave the EU have put forward the option of goods checks being carried out away from the border with an electronic system allowing the declaration of goods and the passage of vehicles being monitored by cameras or IDs on phones etc. The people who want to remain in the EU and the EU itself say that this is not technically possible, although there is a similar system in Calais, the EU fallback in the case of leaving on WTO terms depends on a similar system and a report was produced for the EU which said that it was quite feasible.
Another possibility from the British side is quite simply not to enforce checks on the border until an agreed system can be utilised.
As for the Good Friday Agreement, very few people (including Pelosi) seem to have taken the time to read the short document because it is silent on the enforcement of borders, it actually deals with other matters entirely https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/136652/agreement.pdf
The whole problem has been confected by the EU with the collusion of the Irish Government and Irish Republican groups to try to prevent Britain leaving the EU without being subject to its rules. Some members of the EU delight in the thoughts of detaching Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK as a punishment for daring to want to be politically independent of the EU.
The question of the applcability of the Good Friday Agreement was considered in Belfast High Court and Mr Justice Paul Maguire pointed out that the Good Friday agreement was constitutionally relevant only “in the particular context of whether Northern Ireland should remain as part of the UK or unite with Ireland.”