LONDON, 13 March, 2021 (TON): By seeking to reach a trade deal with the U.S. ahead of EU, Britain demonstrated perverse nationalism, Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney said on Saturday.

“This idea that Britain can get there first is narrow minded thinking, frankly. It’s a perverse nationalism when actually Britain and the EU should work together as partners,” he said.

Alongside advocating the Britain for working with EU and Canada reaching trade agreement with the U.S., Coveney also questioned Britain’s trustworthiness following its plans in delaying checks required by the Brexit deal on some food products traveling from England, Scotland to N. Ireland.

“It has reinforced an awful lot of the doubts in Brussels about whether or not this really is a British government we can rely on to be a trusted partner when it comes to implementing what has already been agreed,” he said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson views the ability to strike trade deals as one of the main benefits of Brexit and sees a deal with the United States as a big potential prize, however, the relations between Britain and Dublin worse when Britain left Brexit in 2016.