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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