US diplomat feels the Brexit blues at American Chamber lunch

The annual Independence Day lunch of the American Chamber of Commerce is usually a celebration of the business ties between Ireland and the US. At Friday's event at the Doubletree Hilton hotel in Dublin, all anybody could talk about was Britain, and its impending exit from the European Union.

As the elite of the US multinational sector gathered for a steak lunch, the heavyweight draw was Anthony Gardner, US ambassador to the EU. The former private equiteer, the most senior US diplomat in Europe, themed his speech around the ramifications of Brexit for EU-US relations.

“Brexit is going to complicate a few things,” he said, with diplomatic understatement.

Gardner, appointed by US president Barack Obama to oversee a new transatlantic trade deal, enjoys watching House of Cards, the Netflix drama themed around cut-throat politics.

‘Quality entertainment’

“It doesn’t even compare with the

House of Cards

in the UK right now,” he said, with a nod to the post-Brexit Machiavellian bloodlust that has engulfed British politics.

On the upcoming US presidential battle between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, Gardner insisted he would have to remain "non partisan" as a diplomat. Then he smirked. "All I can say is: As a public service to the rest of the world, we are going to provide some free, high quality entertainment for the next three or four months."

Negotiations around the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the proposed US-EU trade agreement that Gardner must help deliver, are at an advanced but delicate stage, he hinted.

He said "difficult issues" remain, such as agriculture, regulatory co-operation and, most pertinently for Ireland, transatlantic data transfer from companies, such as Facebook and Google. Gardner reeled off a list of other issues up for discussion in EU-US relations, such as energy policy, the co-ordination of sanctions against Russia and transatlantic police co-operation. It is, he said, a "full agenda"that will be more difficult following the Brexit vote.

“We are sailing into choppy waters,” said Gardner. The business executives in the room agreed.