Mr. Richard Neal:

As irony would have it, I am sitting in the room where the trade agreement would have to be constructed and ratified by the Committee on Ways and Means. The ways and means committee has broad responsibility for trade, tariffs, security, Medicare, pensions, welfare and management of the public debt. It is a very small working committee. The Office of the United States Trade Representative currently has adopted my position and I have a good working relationship with it. The trade representative's successor, Katherine Tai, is a member of my staff and she understands fully the position we have adopted. I understand that a sovereign decision was rendered by the voters of the United Kingdom, but there is also another part of it that reminds all of us of how precarious those negotiations are, and that is they made this decision. In no way should that decision, as it is finalised hopefully in the next few days, offer any jeopardy to the Good Friday Agreement, or there will not be any bilateral trade agreement entertained by the ways and means committee. President-elect Biden was ceremoniously acknowledged yesterday as the President-elect. We will ratify this on 6 January in the House of Representatives. The President-elect has reinforced that position and he has a long-standing interest in it, as do the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the ways and means committee. We all see this issue the same way: no trade agreement if there is any jeopardy to the Good Friday Agreement.