Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I'm looking forward to seeing OldBoy's original post about sandwich labelling. ;)

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

And does this requirement apply to all countries outside the EU ?

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

It’s a genuine question I’m looking for the answer too

A simple yes or no is enough

Edit: for clarification the question I’m asking is to if these requirements apply from any non EU country into the EU/EU customs union.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Do the same requirements apply to any non eu country importing into the eu/eu customs union !

They either do or the don’t ? So, yes or no ?

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

If I might interject … obviously the labelling rules apply to third countries. That’s precisely the point the UK government wants to make.

A Brexit deal in 2020 was only possible with some sort of provision for Northern Ireland in it. The NI provisions threatened to derail the entire process so HMG accepted them. I think their reasoning was not that the protocol was as decent a compromise as was possible under the circumstances, but that it was an outrageous infringement on internationally accepted norms of sovereignty, to such an extent that they could keep delaying its implementation without loss of international support and without the EU enjoying the political commitment of its member states to take rapid legal action.

The endgame here clearly is the technologically driven, invisible customs border between RoI and NI that has been discussed at length in this thread, with compromise after compromise muddled through until it is possible to implement that.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I think the implication from earlier posts by Old Boy had been that the EU was treating the UK harshly by interpreting the Brexit Deal to the letter and not by the spirit of the agreement. Seph confirmed that this was wrong as the EU treated all Third Countries in the same way.

If I understand you correctly, you believe the Brexit deal was unreasonable with regard to the NI provisions.

I think Johnson's end game is to kick the tin can down the alley long enough to see out this Parliament. It's an interesting situation to watch.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

To be honest, any country that needs to import ready made sandwiches needs to have a long hard look at itself.

Getting pretty fed up with all the stupid bickering, posturing, excuses etc regarding this type of crap . . . media driven insanity that triggers the gullible :rolleyes:

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I agree with Old Boy to the extent that the EU is indeed trying to implement the letter without due regard for the spirit or indeed the difficult political context. However I don’t think the EU is trying to issue a punishment beating per se. It’s always good to bear in mind that the European Commission is the civil service of the Union. They are bureaucrats, not politicians, and they slavishly follow the rules because that’s the core skill set of a bureaucrat. It’s somewhat worse in the EU’s case because the European Commission is a civil service on the French model, rather than the British. The French civil service is typically more activist than ours in proposing and promoting policy to the executive. Such is the case also in Brussels. So in “defending the treaties” the Commission really is defending its own baby. Annoying for us, but unsurprising.

The Northern Ireland provisions in the Brexit deal must be seen in this context. They are designed to defend the single market because that’s what the European Commission is for. The European Commission has no real understanding of national sovereignty because part of its mission is to facilitate the transition away from that concept to one in which the EU has broad competency over many things. Fundamentally it does not, and cannot, understand Brexit because it is a move in precisely the opposite direction to that which it exists to pursue.

So, the Northern Ireland provisions pursue something intrinsically “good” as far as the Commission is concerned, and anything that hinders that pursuit is therefore “not-good”. This is how we ended up with an intractable situation prior to the deal being signed and, I believe, Boris’ ultimate decision to sign it for the sake of getting the deal done, and then undermine it at every opportunity thereafter. As written, it is blindingly obvious that it is incompatible with any internationally recognised definition of sovereignty, but given the European Commission’s entire raison d’etre it is also entirely understandable that it is either blind or indifferent to that fact.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

there are a few members that get triggered every time the Eu dirty tricks are questioned.

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

I think 'just in time deliveries' have taken a bit of a knocking just lately, probably easier in the long run (and better for the environment) for M&S to start making sandwiches in NI . . provides employment too ;)

Probably cuts into profits, but that's how things go . . you either want to sell stuff in NI or you don't :D

Re: Britain outside the EU
 

Right, so we can agree that this applies to all non EU countries, we’re not being ‘picked on’ by the ‘perfidious EU’ or other such nonsense. This is just one of the consequences that has to be dealt with. Fab