[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7141-S7143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                Unanimous Consent Agreement--S. Res. 134

  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I would like to call up S. Res. 134, as 
amended, my resolution urging the President to bring negotiations on a 
free-trade agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom 
to a mutually advantageous conclusion.
  I have been working on the Senate floor and behind the scenes for 
several years now trying to get this measure adopted and a trade deal 
signed. Things are finally moving. The message to the President, if 
approved with unanimous consent of the Senate, could not be any more 
timely.

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  President Biden recently announced that after a delay of more than a 
year, we are finally going to resume trade negotiations with the United 
Kingdom. It is not often these days that I am really excited about all 
the news coming from the White House, but this one is absolutely 
thrilling to hear. I am very pleased with it.
  For more than 100 years, throughout times of great change, tumult, 
and uncertainty, our partnership between the United States and the 
United Kingdom--sometimes referred to as the ``special relationship''--
has been constant. Through two world wars and the Cold War, through 
centuries of economic partnership that have forged the world's single-
largest bilateral trade and investment relationship, the UK has been 
our staunchest and our most loyal ally.
  Now, with the UK's newfound ability to negotiate independent free-
trade deals and the President's commitment to resume negotiations on 
that front, the stars are aligned, and we have the opportunity to grow 
that relationship even further. This Senate resolution is the next 
step, calling on the President to bring those negotiations to the 
finish line. What could be better for American jobs, American 
prosperity, and American security than securing such a deal? This is 
what our country needs. This is what my home State of Utah needs.
  Let me tell you a little bit about what that relationship means for 
the people back in my State, back in Utah. Almost 11,000 Utahns are 
employed directly by UK companies and their subsidiaries, and nearly 
40,000 jobs are supported by exports from Utah to the United Kingdom. 
The United Kingdom is our largest export market, and we sent over $9 
billion worth of exports just in 2019 alone.
  Our credit and financial services industries also thrive from our 
trade relationships with the UK. Imagine what it would do for Utah and 
for the rest of the country if we made that trade even easier.
  In this age of great power competition with China, we need to work 
closely with our allies renewing old friendships and crafting new ones.
  As we have seen, our supply chains are in a precarious position, and 
they need to be redoubled and reinforced before we face the next 
calamity. Whatever you might have heard, trade is one of the best ways 
to reinforce our supply chains, and so what we need is a proliferation 
of free-trade agreements with countries around the globe. The United 
Kingdom would certainly be on that list, and, in fact, it should be 
chief among them.
  So now I ask my colleagues to join me, using the full voice and the 
authority of the U.S. Senate, to urge the President to proceed full 
steam ahead on a deal. Throughout history, the partnership between our 
countries has steadied the world through some of its greatest perils, 
and it can continue to do so today if only we let it. The American and 
British peoples have the opportunity to once again join forces and 
emerge from the challenges we face today and to do so stronger than 
ever for the benefit of our countries and nations across the globe.
  To that end, Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask 
unanimous consent that the Finance Committee be discharged from further 
consideration and the Senate now proceed to S. Res. 134. I further ask 
that the Lee substitute amendment to the resolution be considered and 
agreed to; the resolution, as amended, be agreed to; the Lee amendment 
to the preamble be considered and agreed to; the preamble, as amended, 
be agreed to; that the Lee amendment to the title be considered and 
agreed to; the title, as amended, be agreed to; and that the motions to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, Senator Lee 
is right--the relationship between the United States and Britain is 
unique, and it is special. They are often the first to come to our aid 
when we are in need, when we need partners around the globe. So it 
brings me no pleasure to come to the floor to object to this resolution 
being passed at this time, partly because I think there will be a right 
time for the Senate to come together unanimously and express our 
support for a U.S.-Britain free-trade agreement. But I want to spend 
1\1/2\ minutes telling you why this is not the time.
  We are having this debate because Britain has chosen to leave the 
European Union. Previous to Britain's departure, we were pushing for a 
U.S.-EU trade agreement that would have brought benefits to Britain but 
also to the rest of the continent.
  Today, we are talking about a bilateral agreement because Britain is 
leaving the European Union, but they have not yet fully left in the 
sense that there is an agreement connected to their exit that Britain 
has not yet fulfilled. One of the most important aspects of that 
agreement relates to the Good Friday Agreement, the Good Friday 
Agreement being a seminal achievement of American diplomacy that 
brought to an end decades of troubles and violence in and around 
Northern Ireland.
  The UK and EU negotiated what is called the Northern Ireland Protocol 
as part of the EU withdrawal agreement. That arrangement was intended 
to preserve the Good Friday Agreement and to ensure that you would 
never have a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern 
Ireland. Under the protocol, it was agreed that Northern Ireland would 
continue to follow EU rules on food safety and other products standards 
to prevent those customs checks across the border. The checks, instead, 
would take place on goods entering Northern Ireland from England, 
Scotland, or Wales.
  The problem is that the British Government right now wants to change 
the deal and to get rid of most of the checks, to reduce customs 
procedures in order to allow goods to move more freely. But this has 
created a political crisis because it threatens to reerect that hard 
border that could unfortunately stimulate a reemergence of conflict. It 
has already been incredibly destabilizing in Northern Ireland. The 
leader of the largest unionist party has threatened to quit the 
government if the current protocol is not replaced.
  This is not an insignificant risk, and our priority should be, before 
cheerleading and championing a free-trade agreement, to make sure that 
Britain's commitment to protect the Good Friday Agreement as part of 
their departure from the European Union is fulfilled.
  So I look forward to the time when we can come together, Republicans 
and Democrats, and support the entering into of discussions for a free-
trade agreement between the United States and Britain, but I would 
submit that this is not the right time. Right now, we need to be firm 
in our commitment to make sure that the conditions of withdrawal from 
the European Union specifically with respect the Good Friday Agreement 
are fulfilled, and only once those conditions are fulfilled should we 
as a body make that full commitment to this free-trade agreement.
  Let's make sure that we not do anything to jeopardize what has been 
decades of productive peace and peace discussions in and around 
Northern Ireland.
  For that reason, I would object.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. I appreciate the insights shared by my friend and 
distinguished colleague, the Senator from Connecticut, with whom I 
enjoy working on countless issues, but I want to offer a little bit of 
additional context here.
  Senator Menendez and I have worked together for some time now to 
address how any such trade agreement with the United Kingdom might take 
into account the obligations we have to Ireland under the Good Friday 
Agreement.
  Just to be very clear, our resolution does not make any statement on 
elements of the transatlantic relationship outside the jurisdiction of 
U.S. sovereignty. So this shouldn't affect that. Those two things 
shouldn't be tied together.
  Brexit and the debate surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol are 
issues exclusively between the UK and the EU. This resolution is 
interested only, exclusively, in making a statement on working closely 
with a longstanding and stalwart ally and trade

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partner. So we certainly would welcome a similar resolution on U.S.-EU 
trade, and I would be happy to work collaboratively with my friend from 
Connecticut or with any other colleague on either side of the aisle on 
that project.
  If there are additional concerns here, I would love to know what 
those are immediately so that we can resolve this expeditiously. As I 
said earlier, I have been working on this resolution for at least 2 
years now, and I would hate to see it blocked because of a quibble that 
we have already worked with the Foreign Relations Committee, the staff 
across the aisle on that committee, to address. I mentioned that this 
is important to my State of Utah. It is also important to Connecticut.

  In Connecticut, the United Kingdom is directly responsible for over 
22,000 jobs, and it supports another 12,000 through Connecticut goods 
and services that cross between those two countries.
  So I think this would be good for Connecticut. It would be good for 
Utah. It would be good for the entire country, and I hope we can get it 
done. I am disappointed we weren't able get it done today. I am going 
to keep moving ahead on this because it needs to happen.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up 
to 2 minutes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.