‘Follow Norway’s lead on border issue’

THE UK and Ireland may have to adopt a type of border shared by Norway and Sweden in order to preserve free trade, an influential committee in Britain’s House of Commons has found.

Such a border would include ‘checks, formalities and physical infrastructure’, it said. In its latest report, the cross-party Exiting The European Union Committee pushes for the UK to adopt a ‘Norway model’ if efforts to secure a wide-ranging trade deal fail.

Norway is not an EU member but shares borders with Sweden and Finland, which are both EU members. Norway is also a member of the European Free Trade Association and the European Economic Area, which allows it single market access.

‘Should negotiations on a “deep and special partnership” not prove successful, we consider that EFTA/EEA membership remains an alternative which would have the advantage of continuity of access for UK services and could also be negotiated relatively quickly,’ the House of Commons report said. However, the border Norway shares with Sweden, often held up as a model the Irish border could follow after Brexit, still has ‘checks, formalities, physical infrastructure and so on’, the report noted.

The report also suggested that in the event of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, in which the UK adopts World Trade Organisation tariffs, the British government should consider reducing tariffs to zero in trade with the EU. British Labour MP Stephen Kinnock said the report made clear that the Norway option ‘is the only one that would come close to delivering the Brexit Britain needs’.