DUBLIN — U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration just tied the defense of Northern Ireland’s peace accord to the success of the EU-U.K. trade protocol for the region. Such “shamrock diplomacy” has deep and influential roots — and it’s bad news for Northern Irish unionists trying to wreck the protocol.
A joint statement issued late on St. Patrick’s Day by Biden and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said support for the U.S.-brokered 1998 peace deal requires “good faith implementation of international agreements designed to address the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland.” Their declaration followed an unexpectedly long 80-minute video chat.
Ireland for decades has enjoyed unique annual access to the White House, where the fountain water and floodlit building once again turned green for the occasion. Such cultural and political ties are seen as particularly powerful given that Biden bills himself as the most Irish-American president since John F. Kennedy.
Biden and Martin’s new joint position underscores that the U.S., like Ireland, expects the British government to intensify EU customs checks on British goods arriving at ports in Northern Ireland — which, unlike the rest of the U.K., remains subject to EU single market rules.
They want this regardless of the anxiety this causes unionists, who see the rising “sea border” as a long-term threat to their U.K. membership. Before the Good Friday Aagreement, such arguments over Northern Ireland’s future drove three decades of bloodshed that claimed 3,700 lives, much of it committed by pro-union extremists.
The Northern Ireland protocol set April 1 and July 1 as deadlines to intensify regulatory requirements on shipments from Britain. But the British government this month unilaterally delayed those moves until at least October. It is also resisting other agreed elements, including bans on products from Britain containing chilled meat or soil.
An Irish government official told POLITICO that any overt U.S. pressure on behalf of Irish nationalist interests is unlikely to be felt immediately, given the current two-way legal challenges in play.
“We take heart from knowing that America ultimately has our back in these disputes. Irish America is still an influential ally. But it’s clear from our latest dialogue that President Biden appreciates the need to maintain space while legal and political arguments, principally between Britain and the European Commission but involving us as well, run their course. There’s no need to raise heat any further, not at this moment,” the official said.
For their part, unionists are seeking a judicial review of the protocol on constitutional grounds, arguing it violates both the 1801 Act of Union between Britain and Ireland and the 1998 peace deal.
In the other direction, the Commission is threatening to impose trade penalties on Britain unless it delivers the protocol blueprint fully and on schedule. Such punitive countermeasures would follow a two-month space for negotiations between the EU-U.K. Joint Committee.
But Biden’s firm support for the Irish nationalist side of the protocol argument poses a wider diplomatic challenge for Britain, which wants to trump the EU by sealing an advantageous trade deal with Washington.
Boris Johnson’s government already has dismissed unionist interests once by agreeing to the Northern Ireland protocol in the first place. Backing Northern Ireland’s unionists at the expense of Britain’s global trade ambitions seems as unlikely as the White House changing its St. Patrick’s Day colors from green to orange.
This insight is from POLITICO‘s Brexit Files newsletter, a daily afternoon digest of the best coverage and analysis of Britain’s decision to leave the EU available to Brexit Transition Pro subscribers. To request a trial, email [email protected].
