This story isn’t particularly popular in London’s government district, but that’s exactly how it happened. When Joe Biden was asked for a few words by a BBC reporter shortly after his election as US President, he replied, “The BBC? I’m Irish.” Then he grinned and moved on.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has often found out that Joe Biden is proud of his Irish roots. The US President not only cites Irish poets in his speeches, he is also firmly on Ireland’s side in political disputes, especially on matters relating to Brexit. Biden has already warned Johnson several times not to endanger the peace on the Irish island. But it looks like Johnson’s constant threats in the dispute with the EU have now led to consequences in Washington that would mean a serious setback for the prime minister.
the Financial Times reported on Thursday that the United States intends to hold on to tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Great Britain until the Northern Ireland dispute between London and Brussels is resolved. The British newspaper cites a source in the US Department of Commerce. Accordingly, Johnson’s government had been informed that there was concern on the American side that London could arbitrarily suspend parts of the Brexit agreement concluded with the EU.
Dublin warns London not to jeopardize peace on the island of Ireland
It is about the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol. This is part of the 2019 exit agreement and is intended to prevent customs officers from having to control trucks between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, the protocol stipulates that Northern Ireland will continue to comply with EU product rules and customs regulations despite Brexits. The logical consequence, however, is that deliveries of goods from England, Wales or Scotland to Northern Ireland must be checked. According to the UK government, these controls have created serious problems in Northern Ireland’s economy and society that would allow London to rely on an emergency clause in the Treaty, Article 16. This could allow Johnson to suspend parts of the Brexit agreement.
According to Financial Times there are concerns in the Washington administration and in the US Congress that this is exactly what Britain is planning to do. The Irish government fears that London could endanger the still fragile peace on the Irish island – and with it the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, which ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
Negotiations between London and Brussels are still ongoing. The chief negotiators have been meeting for weeks, again this Friday. The British Brexit Minister Lord David Frost recently adopted a softer tone towards the EU, but continues to insist that London will pull Article 16 if there is no agreement with Brussels.
Northern Ireland has recovered from the corona shock faster than Greater London
One of Frost’s arguments is the alleged negative impact of the Brexit treaty on the Northern Irish economy. But this week, figures from the UK Statistics Bureau showed that it is doing pretty well. Compared to other parts of the UK, Northern Ireland has weathered the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic far better. Northern Ireland’s economic output in the third quarter of 2021 was only 0.3 percent below that of the fourth quarter of 2019. According to the statistics office, Northern Ireland has even recovered faster than Greater London, the country’s economic powerhouse.
Many economists see the fact that Northern Ireland is de facto still part of the EU internal market after Brexit as the reason for this. Unlike companies in Wales, Scotland and England, those in Northern Ireland can still trade with companies in the EU – and with those in Great Britain too – without major bureaucratic hurdles. No wonder that cargo throughput in the Northern Irish ports has increased significantly since Britain left the EU.
So while the Northern Irish economy benefits from Brexit at times, there is a deep rift in society. The unionists, the loyalist Protestant part of the population, no longer feel they are an equal part of the United Kingdom. In their eyes, a border was set in the Irish Sea with Brexit. They see the goods controls as an attack on the unity of the kingdom.
Johnson is now in a bind. On the one hand, he wants the tariffs imposed by ex-US President Donald Trump on steel and aluminum imports from Great Britain to be abolished. But for that he would have to stop his threats on the Northern Ireland question. The UK Department of Commerce announced that they saw no connection between these two issues, but very different signals are coming from Washington.
Johnson actually wanted to sign a free trade agreement with the US after Brexit. But that has become a long way off since Biden’s election victory. Now it’s first about the tariffs on steel and aluminum. Trump had imposed this on imports from the EU in 2018. The tariffs were lifted by Biden in October this year. For Great Britain they remain in force, after all, the country no longer belongs to the EU.