Lessons from the Canadian border
Last year, Brexit Secretary David Davis visited the border crossing between Detroit and Windsor, Canada’s southernmost city. Canada has no customs union with its largest trading partner to the south, but has a free trade deal that keeps tariffs low. The fourlane Detroit-windsor bridge is North America’s busiest trade crossing, with 10,000 trucks moving over it every day, carrying 25% of all goods traded between the two nations. It mostly takes between five and 15 minutes to clear customs. Advanced technology is the key. Customs forms can be submitted electronically as little as 30 minutes before arrival. Radiation scanners are used to check trucks for stowaways. Drivers registered as “trusted” carry a barcode that takes a mere 30 seconds to be scanned and approved at the border. Searches are few, but fines for those who are shown to have broken the rules are punitive. The ease of crossing has allowed manufacturers in the car industry to set up hubs on both sides. Some small car parts cross the border seven times before the final product is complete. Yet to facilitate this close integration, Canadian industry has had to adopt US regulation wholesale – because the US economy is so much bigger. A lesson, perhaps, for Brexit Britain.
What is the EU’S position?
EU officials say the first option is a “fantasy” and the second will create too many loopholes. As so often with Brussels, though, the line between what is technically impossible and what is politically distasteful isn’t always clear. We’ll have to wait and see whether any ground is given as negotiations proceed. The acid test is the Irish border: December’s UKEU agreement states that, unless satisfactory arrangements are made to ensure that no hard border is imposed between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, the latter will remain in “full alignment” with the customs union and single market. Yet the Government has also promised that Northern Ireland won’t be subject to different rules from the UK. This circle will be hard to square, and the fallback position gives the EU the upper hand.