

Britain’s endless whining about exiting the European Union (BREXIT) will soon come to an end. Prime Minister Johnson’s sunny predictions of the commercial “buccaneering” that will follow, often omits an important caveat. For Brexit to succeed, Britain needs a U. S. trade deal. Although leaving the EU is a folly of their own making, Britain’s rescue is deemed a U. S. obligation even though the benefits to the U. S. are modest. The more significant and beneficial trade deal with the EU was shelved by President Trump. He did so for the simple reason it was negotiated under the Obama administration. A sequel to the Brexit drama in Brussels and London will soon arrive on America’s shores. Two very important people in Washington have Brexit concerns: Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Chairman Richie Neal of Ways and Means. A reckoning over the impact of any deal on Ireland and the peace process is expected.
It turns out, Britain’s departure from the EU isn’t just about leaving one of the more successful economic and trade partnerships. Britain’s Conservative Party has embraced Brexit to keep Northern Ireland in the colony stable; to manipulate the Irish Republic’s politics and economy; to shed the ‘shackles’ of the EU’s Human Rights obligations and, most importantly, to secure more time to bury their legacy of State sanctioned murders with loyalist bigots. Their 2000 document The Price of Peace labeled the Good Friday Agreement a “criminal subversion” and over the next 20 years the British have reduced the Treaty to a talk shop to obstruct any unity referendum. The British dismissed Ireland’s demand for info on the British Army and MI-5 role in the Dublin Monaghan bombings and added a secret annex to the 2014 St Andrew’s Agreement to station MI-5 personnel in every NI police station. Along the way they have sealed records of killings by soldiers of civilians for 50 years, issued thousands of Personal Immunity Certificates to excuse soldiers from questioning and have obstructed every record request with blanket “national security” vetoes. The U. S. State Department has done its part by not disclosing that Britain satisfied the definition of a State sponsor of terrorism. MI-5 supplied loyalist Brian Nelson with arms linked to the killing of 229 civilians in N. I. whose deaths have yet to be investigated!!! –
The Conservative dominated Parliament will soon grant amnesty to all security services personnel involved in killing civilians in NI (Overseas Operations) and add torture, rape and murder to the legal repertoire of its secret agents (Covert Human Intelligence Services).
With these actions, the Conservatives have challenged the U. S. bi-partisan backing of the Good Friday Agreement and a showdown on any U. K. trade deal is certain. Will approval of a US-UK trade deal rubber stamp this evisceration of the Good Friday Agreement? Will Congress withhold approval if Britain refuses to give the Irish government the information it wants? Will a trade deal bring economic harm and political instability on the partitioned island? The Ways & Means and Senate Finance Committee memorandum that accompanied the 2015 Trade Priorities and Accountability Act prioritizes Congress’s negotiating objectives for U.S. trade deals that “… ensure good governance, transparency, the effective operation of legal regimes which promote respect for internationally recognized human rights and more open and democratic societies.” British rule in Northern Ireland fails on all counts.
Whether a Trump or Biden Presidency faces a UK trade deal, the American people must be impressed with the arrogance of the British to even ask for US support!
Michael J Cummings
Secretary,
American Brexit Committee
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