THE US Senate is next week expected to back a resolution that says the protocol was intended “to protect the peace forged” under the Good Friday Agreement.
The resolution expressing support “for the full implementation” of the 1998 peace accord and subsequent efforts “to support peace on the island of Ireland” is seen as Capitol Hill's latest signalling of its bipartisan opposition to the reintroduction of a hard border.
It comes ahead of next week’s virtual meeting between Taoiseach Micheál Martin and US president Joe Biden to mark St Patrick's Day.
The resolution states that any new or amended US-UK trade agreement should meet the conditions of the Good Friday Agreement.
Proposed by Democrat senator Bob Menendez, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, and Republican Irish-American Susan Collins from Maine, it explicitly states that the reintroduction of “barriers, checkpoints or personnel on the island of Ireland”, including through the invocation of Article 16 of the protocol, “would threaten the successes of the Good Friday Agreement”.
The resolution, which expected to be brought before the Senate over the coming days, says the protocol element of the Withdrawal Agreement was intended “to protect the peace forged” under peace accord, the Irish Times reported.
The move comes amid renewed focus on transatlantic relations. This week saw Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney and European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic brief Washington's Friends of Ireland caucus about the British government's unilateral extension of the protocol's grace periods.
It also emerged that the British government plans to send a senior official from the Northern Ireland Office to Washington in an effort to set out the British perspective on the latest Brexit developments.
Speaking last week about the dispute over the operation of the protocol, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Mr Biden is “unequivocal” in his support for the Good Friday Agreement.
“It has been the bedrock of peace, stability and prosperity for all the people of Northern Ireland,” Ms Psaki said.
