Dominic Raab: US must be ‘robust’ with EU if it undermines Northern Ireland peace process

Dominic Raab said 'the most overt political threat to the agreement and ultimately the Good Friday Agreement has been the politicised way the EU has gone about things'

Credit: Stefan Rousseau/PA

The United States must be "equally robust" with the EU when it threatens to compromise the Northern Ireland peace process as it is with Britain, Dominic Raab has said. 

In a conversation with US senators and journalists, the Foreign Secretary accused Brussels of attempting to erect a border down the Irish Sea and called on US congressmen to hold the EU to account for its "overt threat" to the integrity of the Good Friday Agreement. 

"Our argument has always been that it has been the EU, by trying to erect a barrier down the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, that is the one challenging both the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Good Friday Agreement," Mr Raab told the Aspen Security Forum, an annual US foreign policy conference. 

Asked by Brendan Boyle, a pro-Irish congressman, whether the UK remained committed to the agreement, he said: "I hope our friends on the Hill, on all sides of the House and in both Houses, are equally robust in picking up when the EU undermines the agreement, in particular the invocation of article 16. 

"The most overt political threat to the agreement and ultimately the Good Friday Agreement has been the politicised way the EU has gone about things. So much so that Dublin was very critical when article 16 was cited in that way."

On Tuesday, the US Senate introduced a resolution underlining its support for the Good Friday Agreement and linking any new trade agreement with the UK to its conditions being met. The resolution, sponsored by Democrat Robert Menendez and Republican Susan Collins, has bipartisan support and is likely to pass when voted on next month. 

The Northern Ireland Protocol is an agreement between the UK and the EU to avoid checkpoints being established on the Irish border. It enables goods normally allowed to be traded between the two to travel between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic without checks. 

In January the EU briefly invoked Article 16, a clause that allows either side to halt exports in an emergency, in a bid to prevent the export of Covid vaccines. It quickly reversed the decision and said it had been a "mistake".

On Monday, the EU said it would take legal action against Britain after it unilaterally extended the "grace period" before UK exporters to Northern Ireland are required to start providing export certificates.