Ministers hope to strike a temporary deal with the European Union to retain the key benefits of the customs union for an interim period after Brexit, to avoid cross-border commerce grinding to a halt.
The government will use a position paper published on Tuesday to reveal that, for a brief period, it will seek a deal allowing the transit of goods across borders to continue as now – perhaps by striking a “temporary customs union”.
Ministers hope this will avoid economic disruption by giving businesses and officials time to gear up for a new customs regime; while sidestepping the constraint that full members of the customs union are not allowed to strike independent trade deals with non-EU countries.
The government will say it wants to create “the freest and most frictionless possible trade in goods between the UK and the EU”.Yeah, and I want to be a billionaire married to Scarlett Johansson.
Why would the EU allow the UK access to a customs union if the latter is simultaneously permitted to negotiate external trade deals? And how much would the EU expect the UK to pay for the privilege? And would the ECJ not have to adjudicate disputes? And, thus, we are back to the same old, same old ...
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