UK weighs up EU customs options
• Business Minister Greg Clark says deal weeks away as fear remains over border between Northern Ireland and Irish Republic
Britain was weeks away from deciding on its future customs arrangements with the EU, a minister said on Sunday, adding fuel to a debate that is all but stalling Brexit talks in Brussels and politics at home.
After local elections last week when Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party did better than many expected, how to make Britain’s new border with the EU “as frictionless as possible” when it leaves the bloc is becoming a headache. May, who depends on the support of a small Northern Irish party for a majority in parliament, is under pressure from Brexit campaigners to drop what some say is her preferred option of a customs partnership to keep trade flowing freely.
On Sunday, Business Minister Greg Clark again made the case for that partnership, saying ministers were working on it and another hi-tech option.
EU negotiators have dismissed both options.
“I’ve never been so cleareyed in my life about this. I do feel very strongly, for this reason. It is absolutely right that we should be leaving the customs union, but what we replace it with is of huge importance,” he told the BBC.
Clark, who used the example of car maker Toyota which relies on components crossing borders to manufacture cars in Britain, said businesses needed the certainty of what happens next, but warned that it could take some time not only to make a decision, but also to implement it once it had been agreed.
“As part of the work over the next few weeks, I think it would be a mistake to move from one situation and to another and to a third,” he said, arguing that ministers could improve the two options while admitting they both had drawbacks.
His message was supported by businesses and former minister, Amber Rudd, whose resignation as a cabinet minister could embolden those Conservative legislators who are arguing for Britain to maintain the closest possible trading ties with the EU.
In a tweet to Clark, Rudd said: “Quite right, making the case clearly and yes, passionately, for a Brexit that protects existing jobs and future investment.”
MAIN FLASHPOINT
Britain’s future customs arrangement after it leaves the bloc in March 2019 is fast becoming the main flashpoint in the Brexit debate. This is important because some fear it could usher in a return to a hard border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, possibly reigniting sectarian violence.
The opposition Labour Party says it can overcome that problem by backing a new customs union if in power. Its finance policy chief, John McDonnell, said that would offer the closest possible relationship with the EU’s single market.
May vowed to leave the customs union, which sets tariffs for goods imported into the bloc, so Britain can negotiate its own free-trade deals. She tried to appease Brexit campaigners by repeating her pledge to take “back control of our borders, our laws and our money” in the Sun on Sunday newspaper.
WE SHOULD BE LEAVING THE CUSTOMS UNION, BUT WHAT WE REPLACE IT WITH IS OF HUGE IMPORTANCE