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trade deals

Nancy Pelosi says US-UK trade deal 'very unlikely' if Good Friday Agreement is tampered with

Britain is angling for a trade deal with Washington now it has left the European Union.

BRITAIN AND THE US will “probably end up” striking a bilateral trade deal, but agreement is “very unlikely” if the terms of the Ireland peace deal are broken, Nancy Pelosi said Friday.

“This is not said as any threat, it’s a prediction, if there’s destruction of the Good Friday accords, we’re very unlikely to have a UK-US bilateral,” the House of Representatives speaker said on a visit to London.

Britain is angling for a trade deal with Washington now it has left the European Union.

But it remains locked in talks with Brussels and Dublin about how best to implement tricky post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland.

London and Brussels agreed earlier this month to indefinitely extend a grace period on implementing some checks — a move welcomed by Pelosi.

“I’m so glad that more time has been given for the negotiations… because there has to be an agreement,” she told the Chatham House international affairs think tank.

Any UK-US trade deal will need to be passed by the House of Representatives led by Pelosi, a Democrat whose boss, US President Joe Biden, is of Irish descent.

She stressed the Good Friday deal, brokered under US president Bill Clinton, is “very, very, very, very respected in the Congress of the United States.

“We probably will end up there,” she said of a trade deal, “but we have a path that has to come through the EU, recognising the importance of the Good Friday accords”.

Pelosi said she discussed the issue with Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a meeting at Downing Street yesterday.

“He gave me some reading material. He may be coming to the US… soon and I told him I’d be reading what he gave me and asking some questions about it when we meet.”

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