Labour’s David Lammy vows to get US-UK trade deal

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”There cannot be a trade deal while this is on the stocks, this is entirely a right-wing conservative-driven agenda to create unnecessary rows with the European Union to sway a certain part of the conservative party.

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“It would be gone if we were in power,” he said.

Brexit critics, including many Labour party MPs and supporters, have railed against a possible trade agreement with the United States, claiming it would lead to poorly produced and low quality meat and food products swamping the UK as well as the possible privatisation of the NHS.

But Lammy said trade deals were a way to spur economic growth.

“In the end, if Britain wants to get back to growth, it wants to get back to productivity, then we do have to sign trade deals with countries like the US,” he said.

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“We have to be a country outside the European Union that’s engaged with the world, that’s clear, that’s how Britain does well,” he said.

What’s the Northern Ireland Protocol?

The Northern Ireland protocol was agreed by the Conservatives under deposed Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It requires all goods travelling from mainland Britain to Northern Ireland to undergo customs checks, effectively creating a border down the Irish Sea.

Some animal and plant products subject to sanitary rules must comply with EU law if they are entering Northern Ireland and some chilled meat and sausages stand to be banned altogether.

Complicating factors, the unionist parties in Northern Ireland oppose the protocol because it creates friction within the UK’s internal market.

The Democratic Unionist Party is refusing to play it’s required role in forming government until the protocol is changed, something Truss introduced laws to do, but actions that are opposed by the EU.

Sinn Fein, which, for the first time, won the largest number of seats in the latest Northern Ireland Assembly election supports the protocol as it does not create a border within the island of Ireland. Sinn Fein, which was the political wing of the IRA during The Troubles, wants a referendum on reunification of Northern Ireland with Ireland.

How to deal with the island of Ireland was the most contentious part of Brexit negotiations because as part of the Good Friday Agreement aimed at preserving peace after The Troubles, no hard border can be erected between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Upholding the Good Friday Agreement, which the Clinton Administration played a key role in helping broker, has been a priority of the United States. According to the White House, Biden and Truss “affirmed their shared commitment to protecting the gains of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement” at their recent meeting in New York at the United Nations General Assembly.

The ongoing conflict means that the UK’s post-Brexit agreements have limited to just two deals with minor trade partners Australia and New Zealand since quitting the EU’s lucrative single market.

But Lammy said he doubted that the issue would see Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, visit Biden in the White House before Truss.

“In the end there is a special relationship between the UK and the US whoever is the incumbent in Number 10 and the White House.

“And I fully expect to see Liz Truss with Joe Biden in the White House,” he said.



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