UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak traveled to Belfast on Tuesday last week to sell his landmark agreement with the European Union to its toughest audience: Unionist politicians who fear post-Brexit trade rules are weakening Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

The UK and the 27-nation EU announced Monday that they had struck a deal to resolve a dispute over Northern Ireland trade that has vexed relations since the UK left the bloc in 2020. The agreement will ease customs checks and other hurdles for goods moving to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK that were imposed after Brexit to maintain an open border between the north and its EU neighbor, the Republic of Ireland.

The deal, dubbed the “Windsor Framework,” was hailed by London and Brussels as a breakthrough. But Northern Ireland’s British unionist politicians have yet to give it their blessing. Their support is key to restoring Northern Ireland’s semi-autonomous government, which has been toppled by the trade feud, leaving 1.9 million people without a functioning administration.

Sunak told the BBC the deal was “a huge step forward for the people of Northern Ireland” and he was confident politicians there would support it.

The Democratic Unionist Party, which had governed alongside Irish nationalists Sinn Fein in the power-sharing administration, walked out of the government a year ago to protest the trade rules and has refused to return until they are scrapped or substantially rewritten. Under Northern Ireland’s political system, power is shared between Irish nationalists and British unionists, and neither side can govern without the other.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said Tuesday last week that the party would “take our time” to pore over the details of the deal before delivering its verdict.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a border with an EU member. When the UK left the bloc, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process.

Instead, there are checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. That angered British unionist politicians in Belfast, who say the new trade border in the Irish Sea undermined Northern Ireland’s place in the UK.

Sunak said the new Windsor Framework “removes any sense of an Irish Sea border,” removing checks on the vast majority of goods. It also gives Northern Ireland politicians a mechanism to challenge new EU trade rules that could apply in the region — a key unionist demand.

Business groups largely welcomed the deal, saying it would ease the burdens faced by companies and give Northern Ireland customers access to goods such as English sausages that were blocked under the original post-Brexit rules.

Some hard-line pro-Brexit politicians in Sunak’s governing Conservatives also were surprisingly positive about the deal. One key figure has yet to weigh in — former UK prime minister Boris Johnson, who negotiated the original Brexit divorce deal that Sunak has now rewritten.

The agreement was also welcomed by the White House, which said it was “grateful” the two sides could resolve the dispute.

(AP)

英國首相里希．蘇納克上週二前往北愛爾蘭首府貝爾法斯特，向最嚴苛的聽眾──擔心英國脫歐後的貿易規則削弱北愛爾蘭在英國之地位的北愛民主聯盟黨政客──推銷他與歐盟達成的具里程碑意義的協議。

英國與歐盟27國上週一宣布，他們已達成協議，解決自2020年英國脫歐以來一直困擾兩方關係的北愛爾蘭貿易爭端。該協議將放寬英國脫歐後強加於北愛爾蘭與英國其他地區之間的海關檢查，以及其他貨物轉運之障礙，以維持北愛與其歐盟鄰國愛爾蘭共和國之間的開放邊界。

這稱為「溫莎框架」的協議，被倫敦及布魯塞爾譽為一項突破。但北愛爾蘭主張與英國統一的政客尚未表態支持。他們的背書是重啟北愛爾蘭半自治政府的關鍵，該政府已因貿易爭端被癱瘓，導致有190萬人口的北愛爾蘭沒有政府正常運作。

蘇納克對BBC表示，該協議是「北愛爾蘭人民向前邁出的一大步」，他相信北愛的政界會支持它。

在權力分享政府中與愛爾蘭民族主義派的新芬黨共同執政的民主統一黨（DUP），一年前為抗議貿易規則而退出執政，並表示除非該貿易規則被廢除或大幅改寫，他們不會重返政府。在北愛爾蘭的政治體制下，權力由愛爾蘭民族主義派與英國統一派共享，任何一方都不能缺席執政。

DUP領導人杰弗瑞．唐納森上週二表示，該黨將在做出裁決前「花時間」仔細研究該協議的細節。

北愛爾蘭是英國唯一與歐盟成員國接壤的地區。英國離開歐盟時，雙方同意讓愛爾蘭邊境免於海關檢查和其他檢查，因為開放的邊界是北愛爾蘭和平進程的重要支柱。

但取而代之的，是對從英國其他地區進入北愛爾蘭的一些商品進行檢查。這激怒了貝爾法斯特的親英統派政客，說愛爾蘭海的新貿易邊界破壞了北愛爾蘭在英國的地位。

蘇納克表示，溫莎框架「消除了愛爾蘭海的任何邊界感覺」，取消了對絕大多數商品的檢查。它還為北愛爾蘭政客提供一個機制來挑戰可能適用於該地區的新歐盟貿易規則——這是親英統派的一個關鍵要求。

商業團體對這筆交易多表歡迎，稱這將減輕公司的負擔，並讓北愛爾蘭客戶能夠獲得英國脫歐後最初被禁的商品，例如英國香腸。

蘇納克執政的保守黨中一些支持脫歐的強硬派政客對這項協議也出乎意料地持積極態度。 只有一位關鍵人物尚未發表意見——前首相鮑里斯．強森，他談判了最初的脫歐協議，蘇納克現在已經改寫了該協議。

該協議也受到白宮的歡迎，稱「感謝」雙方能夠解決爭端。

(台北時報林俐凱編譯)

文章出處: https://reurl.cc/8q5RKd