INTERNATIONAL Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan met top US Democrat Richard Neal amid tensions over the post-Brexit deal with Northern Ireland.
The head of the powerful ways and means committee in the US House of Representatives also spoke with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer yesterday.
It follows a warning from US House speaker Nancy Pelosi that Congress will not support a free trade agreement with the UK if the Government persists with “deeply concerning” plans to “unilaterally discard” the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Trevelyan said she was “delighted” to welcome a bipartisan congressional delegation led by Neal to her department to discuss UK-US trade matters, as well as the situation in Ukraine, but made no explicit mention of post-Brexit tensions.
She tweeted: “Delighted to welcome @RepRichardNeal @RepKevinBrady and the US Ways & Means Committee delegation to @tradegovuk to discuss trade, Ukraine, and watch the glorious rehearsals for Trooping the Colour #PlatinumJubilee”.
A spokesman for Starmer said his meeting featured talks on the need to protect the Good Friday Agreement by ensuring a working Northern Ireland Protocol.
The Labour leader and congressional delegation also touched on the need to be ambitious and creative in trade dialogues between the US and UK, and the importance of western unity in the face of Russian aggression in Europe, the spokesman said.
In a strongly-worded intervention on Thursday, Pelosi urged the UK and the EU to continue negotiations on the post-Brexit trade arrangements to uphold peace in the region.
The congresswoman said in a statement: “The Good Friday Accords are the bedrock of peace in Northern Ireland and a beacon of hope for the entire world.”
The latest controversy has been sparked Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s announcement on Tuesday that the UK intends to legislate to override parts of the Brexit withdrawal treaty it struck with the EU.
