[ianch99]

Originally Posted by pip08456

Could you link to this rule as you seem to know so much about it?
Preferably from the WTO site.

As you know so little about it, why don't you do some research on the subject? Here's a starter:

https://tradebetablog.wordpress.com/...their-borders/

What WTO rules say

First, a fact:

There is no rule in the WTO requiring its member governments to secure their borders.

After Brexit, the UK could drop all border controls for traded goods and services and it would be perfectly within its WTO rights.

And yet there was some truth in what Anna Soubry said. Independent.ie was much farther off the mark. And the hard Brexiters are completely at sea.

Here’s why:

- The WTO does not tell countries what to do other than to keep their promises (abide by the WTO agreements and their WTO commitments)

- Even when countries break their WTO promises, there is no “confrontation” with “the WTO” and least of all with “WTO officials”

- The WTO is member-driven. If in the future other WTO countries believe the UK is violating an agreement, it is they, not the WTO bureaucracy, who will act. They can do so by complaining in a WTO meeting or filing a legal challenge in WTO dispute settlement
Since there is no WTO rule requiring governments to secure their borders, failing to do so would not break any specific agreement

- Where the UK might run into trouble is under the WTO’s non-discrimination rules, particularly “most-favoured-nation” treatment (MFN), which means treating one’s trading partners equally

Suppose the UK and EU trade on WTO terms after Brexit. Suppose American apples arriving in the UK at an English port have to go through controls, but Irish apples crossing the border into Northern Ireland (also the UK) do not. Then the US could complain that its apples were discriminated against. They weren’t given equal treatment with Irish apples when they entered the UK.

The US might seek a legal ruling in WTO dispute settlement. Months or years later, the ruling might conclude that the UK had discriminated. So either checks at the English ports would have to be dropped, or checks at the Irish border would have to be set up.

In other words, while no WTO rule actually says the UK will have to set up border checks, the non-discrimination rule may force it to.