Democratic Senator Says Congress Should Block UK-US FTA Negotiations

Because the Trump administration has cheered on Brexit, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., thinks Congress should not consent to starting negotiations with the United Kingdom on a free trade agreement. Murphy, who spoke at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York April 1, said the U.S. should reach a free trade agreement with the European Union first. Though, in a quick acknowledgement of the difficulty the two sides had during Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership talks, Murphy added "or at least give that FTA a serious try."

Murphy said that if Congress does agree to free-trade talks with the U.K., it should condition the deal on Northern Ireland not having a hard border with Ireland.

However, Murphy said that after meeting with some members of the Labor Party in England during a trip last week, there may not be a Brexit that would free the U.K. to negotiate deals. "I came back thinking that [Prime Minister Theresa] May's deal was going to pass come Hell or high water," he said. May can't keep out of her own way, he said, giving the example of how she gave a speech blaming Parliament for the disarray on Brexit, but he said faced with a choice of hard Brexit or May's deal, they will "swallow hard" and vote for May's deal, he believes.