There will be “no chance” of a US-UK trade deal being signed off if there is a return of a hard Irish border after Brexit, US senator Chris Murphy has said. Mr Murphy is the first US senator to raise publicly the prospect of blocking a trade agreement with the UK if there is a hard Irish border after Brexit. Mr Murphy said he wished Mr Trump “wasn’t such an unconditional cheerleader of Brexit” but sought to temper expectations that the president’s support for the UK’s exit from the EU might lead to a quick trade deal. “If we reward Britain’s departure from the EU with a quick trade agreement, it is another arrow in Russia’s quiver,” he said. “The exhaustion you feel with Brexit is the same exhaustion that we feel with the president and his daily social media barrage,” he said.

Source: The Irish Times March 22, 2019 21:02 UTC