A DELEGATION of US politicians has warned the UK Government that unilaterally removing the Northern Ireland Protocol “will not work”.
Democratic congressman Dan Kildee urged Foreign Secretary Liz Truss to engage in face-to-face negotiations with Brussels to resolve the outstanding issues.
It comes as the bipartisan US congressional delegation is due to meet Irish premier Micheal Martin on Monday in Dublin.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald will also meet the group.
The delegation, led by senior Democrat Richard Neal, is visiting Ireland and Northern Ireland this week amid ongoing tensions caused by the post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Kildee met with Truss over the weekend.
“It’s important, and we stress this, that the (British government) negotiate and that they not take unilateral action,” Kildee told RTE Morning Ireland.
“I think that was the very first point that was pressed by our delegation, most particularly Richie Neal.
“The only way we can come to agreement, the only way we protect the incredible progress that’s represented with the Good Friday Agreement, is face-to-face negotiation.
“It is disappointing to see unilateral action being considered, we stressed that that was not the approach that we recommend, but again, difficult to determine their motivation.
“We don’t believe that is the proper path. We think unilateral solutions will not work, face-to-face negotiation to work out some of these technical questions can be achieved and that’s what we currently recommend.”
He said there was no indication the British government intends to “change course”.
“The purpose of the meeting was to make sure it was very clear to them what our position is and has been the position of chairman Neal, Nancy Pelosi, and the American government in general supports that we don’t believe that will lead to a positive outcome,” he added.
“We think it’s best, whenever there is a difference, to sit down across the table and negotiate toward a common purpose.
“It’s interesting that is the history that we celebrate when we think about the incredible benefits of the Good Friday Agreement, a very difficult, long-standing dispute resolved through negotiation.
“That’s a lesson that not only the rest of the world should learn, but we would hope that the parties involved now, the UK Government would recognise that’s the way to resolve these differences.”
The group repeated a warning that there will not be a US-UK trade agreement if any damage is caused to the Good Friday Agreement as a result of unilateral action.
“That’s been articulated by the speaker and now having had both Democratic and Republican members of Congress, who don’t agree on everything, there are many things we disagree on but we agree on that point and we’ve made it very clear to each and every person that we’ve met with on this delegation trip,” Kildee added.
