Quote:
Originally Posted by Pierre
Where does it say that there has to be an EU imposed hard border?
In any event, nobody is saying that there won’t be tarriffs and other checks, but you don’t need physical infrastructure to achieve it it.
|
If the EU members didn't have hard borders with countries that are not aligned through the single market and customs union then the EU ceases to become compliant with WTO regulations unless it has zero tariffs with every country and it has no intention of doing so. Otherwise, you will be letting through goods that have different standards (eg chlorinated chicken) or are subsidised (eg US maize) or have tariffs on (eg Chinese-made cars) which will damage the single market. So not EU-imposed, but they would probably be the messenger boy as the EU is the WTO member.
No serious player now believes that wishful thinking about no physical infrastructure being needed for a hard border. The Irish border is the elephant in the room and always has been.
From a hard/clean Brexit point of view, keeping NI in the EU customs union and the single market is probably the best solution given the interdependent nature of the two countries making up the island of Ireland, but getting the DUP on board may be tricky.