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About That Irish Backstop …
A key hold-up in Brexit negotiations is the so-called Irish backstop—which has to do with the fact that the only physical border between the UK and an EU country is that between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland. This introduces questions about how trade between the two will be conducted once the UK (and Northern Ireland with it) is no longer in the EU, but Ireland remains part of the common market.
In one sense, these tensions go back centuries, resurrecting questions that have long-plagued the island about its proper place—as a country, in relation to the UK, and in relation to the rest of Europe. And then there is the age-old religious divide between Catholics and Protestants.
As old as these troubles are, they are also relatively new aspects—in the sense that it’s been 20 short years since much of the violence was calmed via the Good Friday Agreement (or the Belfast Agreement), which brought to a close a violent period known as the Troubles, which started in the 1960s. The idea of bringing back a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland for the sake of trade hearkens back to armed guards at checkpoints, bombings and Bloody Sunday.
As a result, all sides agree there shouldn’t be a physical barrier between Northern Ireland and the Republic (i.e., between the EU and the UK, in a post-Brexit world). To get around that, the EU’s initial proposal was Northern Ireland would remain in the single market, while England, Scotland and Wales would leave and be free to negotiate their own trade deals. Naturally, the UK wasn’t so fond of this solution—nor was the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland, which favors unification with the UK (as opposed to the Republic of Ireland).
Former Prime Minister Theresa May had proposed an alternative: In the event the UK left the EU without a deal, the entirety of the UK would remain in the EU’s customs union indefinitely—as would, of course, Northern Ireland—until a more permanent arrangement could be reached. Naturally, this wasn’t particularly satisfactory to pro-Brexiters, who saw in it the EU’s means of keeping the UK effectively in the EU and preventing it from negotiating individual trade deals with other countries.
While it has periodically appeared as though the two sides may reach an agreement, thus far, it remains the main sticking point in never-ending Brexit negotiations. Time will tell whether recently installed PM Boris Johnson will be able to deliver on his promise to take the UK out of the EU by the October 31 deadline without prompting a full-blown constitutional crisis.
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