Biden urges UK and EU to negotiate over Northen Ireland protocol

The Biden administration has urged the UK government and European Union to return to talks in an attempt to resolve differences over implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol.

A White House spokesman said on Monday that “transatlantic peace, security, and prosperity are best served by a strong UK, a strong EU, and the closest possible relationship between the two”.

The comments came as the UK government announced legislation aimed at allowing it to unilaterally change elements of the Northern Ireland protocol.

The White House said the priority for the US remained protecting the Belfast Agreement and preserving peace, stability and prosperity for the people of Northern Ireland.

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“We have welcomed the provisions in the EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol as a way to manage the practical challenges of preserving distinct EU and UK markets while preventing the return of customs infrastructure on the land border.

“We recognise there have been challenges over the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol. We urge the UK and EU to return to talks to resolve these differences. We support a strong and close EU-UK partnership. Transatlantic peace, security, and prosperity are best served by a strong UK, a strong EU, and the closest possible relationship between the two.”

Leading Irish-American politician and chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in the House of Representatives Richard Neal also urged the UK and the EU “to find joint, negotiated solutions to post-Brexit trading arrangements. We must co-operate and stay united in rebuilding our global economy in the wake of the pandemic and in supporting the Ukrainian people through Russia’s unprovoked war. The US remains a guarantor of the historic Good Friday agreement and peace on the island of Ireland, which all parties must protect, and build on for future generations.”

Conor Burns, the envoy of British prime minister Boris Johnson to Washington on the protocol, said the UK had signed up to its terms “in theory” when leaving the EU and when the post-departure regime was unclear.

Speaking in Washington on Monday he said: “We now have almost 18 months of lived experience of real data and real evidence of goods moving and we believe in the light of that lived experience that we need to recalibrate how the protocol is being interpreted and implemented. We have gone through [the] exhaustive process with the EU, trying to negotiate on how that protocol is changed and recalibrated and how the interpretation is reinterpreted.”

However, he said the mandate of the EU negotiators was not sufficiently broad to allow a “landing zone” to be reached in the current talks. He insisted that the introduction of the new legislation by the British government did not represent a breach of international law.

“We are doing this as the UK government because we believe this is in the interest of the UK and crucially in the interest of the people of Northern Ireland.”

Mr Burns said that the implementation and interpretation of the protocol were now the principal impediments to the restoration of devolved government. He said the UK government could not stand back and hope that the EU negotiators were given a broader mandate.

He told The Irish Times on Monday: “We are simply making the assertion when we signed up to this, we did not believe it would be necessary for the EU to demand full panoply of checks of goods moving within the UK internal market as on goods moving through the UK internal market, moving through Northern Ireland into the single market and into Ireland.

“Why do goods moving from England, Scotland and Wales into Northern Ireland for sale and consumption in Northern Ireland require the same level of checks as goods moving into the single market and how is that in fidelity with the shared aim of avoiding controls at ports and airports in Northern Ireland?”

He said when the EU was not prepared to move “we are left with no option but to legislate to uphold the EU’s ambition to protect its single market and integrity of UK internal market”.

Mr Burns said not a single unionist accepted the protocol as it was being interpreted and applied. He also said that some non-unionists had also raised concerns about how the implementation of the protocol had caused issues in their areas.

Mr Burns said that as someone who was born in Belfast to a family that was largely nationalist in its world view and who was Catholic and openly gay, the idea that he was defending the new UK legislation because he was an advocate of the DUP was “ just laughable”.

He said there were about £430 million (€501 million) available to assist people living in Northern Ireland with the cost of living and other issues if the devolved government was restored.

“It is the interpretation and application of the protocol that is the frustrator, the impediment to restore devolved government.”

He said the issues surrounding the implementation of the protocol were not just about theoretical trade agreements and diversion of trade. He said it was “impacting on our ability to look after people in Northern Ireland”.