With reality sinking in that 74-year-old President Donald Trump will not get a second term, 56-yer-old British Prime Minister Boris Johnson feels the heat to cut a deal with European Union on a trade deal with Ireland and Northern Ireland. When the U.K. and Ireland signed the Good Friday Agreement April 10, 1998, ending nearly 100 years of bloodshed trying to unify Ireland, no one imagined that the U.K. would cut its ties with the EU, opening a can of worms negotiated on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, a major sticking point in resolving the nearly 100-year conflict. Johnson knew that Trump had his back when it came to a trade deal with the United States if he could not get an acceptable trade deal before Dec. 31. President -elect Joe Biden has put pressure on Johnson to cut a trade deal with the EU.
Whatever Biden’s ancestral roots, he should not pressure one side against the other to find an acceptable border and trade arrangement. Trump sided with the U.K., backing Brexit, enabling the U.K. to severe ties with the EU, especially over its immigration policy. U.K. citizens voted June 23, 2016, in Biden’s last year as Vice President under former President Barack Obama, to cut ties with the EU over its pressure to take more Mideast refugees due to the war in Syria. Obama and Biden backed the Saudi proxy war to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, spending billions over eight years in office backing Syrian rebels to topple al-Assad. Obama and Biden’s support for the Saudi proxy war caused 500,00 deaths and forced 15 millions Syrian into exile, causing the biggest humanitarian crisis since WW II.
Refugee quotas imposed by the EU prompted U.K. citizens to severe ties with Brussels, finally completed with Brexit Jan. 31. EU leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron backed the Saudi proxy war to topple al-Assad’s Shiite government. Once 68-year-old Russian President Vlaidmir joined the fight Sept. 15, 2015 to say al-Assad, the U.S. and EU strategy to topple Damascus failed. Now Johnson and Irish Prime Minister Michael Martin must work out a trade deal or risk sending the historic Good Friday into chaos. Without a trade deal, the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland would harden, requiring passport control, just like it was before the U.K. joined the EU. Martin told EU trade deal negotiator Michael Barnier and Johnson that Biden wanted a completed trade deal.
Biden’s Irish roots should be completely irrelevant to any negotiation between Brussels and London when it comes to an open border or any other issues in comprehensive trade deal. U.S. trade policy should not be based on the president’s Irish ancestry or interpretation of the Good Friday Agreement. Whatever the Good Friday deal did to promote peace between Ireland and Northern Ireland is not relevant to the current Brexit circumstance, requiring the EU and U.K. to negotiate in good faith. “He is very committed to the Good Friday Agreement,” Martin said. “Particularly in relation to Brexit, he would favor, obviously, a deal between the European Union and Britain,” stating the obvious, but pressuring Johnson to accept the EU’s terms. Johnson wants a deal that respects British sovereignty.
Biden’s public statements could backfire in London, where the U.K. already feels it has paid a disproportionate price for Brexit. Agreements of fishing rights, borders and bilateral work arrangements can’t be dictated only by the EU, no matter what power they wield. Since Brexit was official Jan. 31, the EU has used strong-armed tactics to push the U.K. into making concessions. “And I think that’s where, if I could respectfully say it, that’s where the British government should head, in that direction, in my view, it should knuckle down and . . . get a deal wit the European Union,” said Martin. Martin has used Ireland’s membership in the EU to gain concessions from London. Johnson said London has done everything possible to get a deal done. Johnson wants Ireland and the EU to respect the U.K.’s sovereignty.
If needed, the U.K. and EU can ask for an extension on the current round of trade talks. Taking the EU’s side, Biden signals he plans to return to Obama’s global approach to international trade and diplomacy. Johnson thinks that EU negotiator Michael Barnier has not respected British sovereignty in a post-Brexit world. “Hard to get a deal with the EU, but it does move to be one that respects the U.K.’s sovereignty,” said Johnson’s spokesman. With Biden replacing Trump, the EU thinks it has more clout to drive a harder bargain on all the usual sticking points, including the border and fishing rights. “The U.K. has already shown a great degree of flexibility in these negotiations, but it’s important also that the European Union shows flexibility too,” said U.K. negotiator Michael Grove, hoping the EU takes the talks seriously.
