Regular readers of this blog will know without a shadow of doubt that there is nothing to be gained by remaining in the EU’s Customs Union. Well, dear readers, you can pat yourselves on the back for you are clearly much wiser than 348 members of the Upper Chamber of our Parliament.
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, speaking in the debate preceding the vote, said: “I do not recall at the time of the referendum any debate about a customs union.” He was perfectly correct in saying this. Staying in the customs union is such a daft idea that no one felt the need to bring the subject up. As Dr Richard North points out: “A customs union does not in any way eliminate a border, as we see with the borders between Turkey and EU Member States.” It is therefore no help in solving the Irish border question.
He also makes the point that, as usual, the Press are all over the place in their reporting of yesterday’s vote. It was not a “big defeat” for the government as the amendment supported by 348 peers only forced “the government to explain what it has done to pursue remaining in a customs union”. In other words, suppose that some degree of light finally dawned and the government realised that there was no point in remaining in a customs union, all this “big defeat” would require them to do would be to say to their Lordships “not much”. Hardly the sabotaging of Brexit which the headlines seem to suggest.
For people looking for a way to keep the flow of trade moving in the immediate post-Brexit period, both across the Irish border and through the Channel Tunnel, it makes for more sense to visit the invisible border between Sweden and Norway rather than Turkey’s version of “Operation Stack” at Kapikule on its border with EU member state Bulgaria. Norway is not in the customs union; Turkey is. Need one say any more?
The Government should finally lay to rest all this nonsense about a customs union. It should also abandon the current plans for a transitional deal. Further evidence of its inadequacies emerged yesterday when Cecilia Malmström, the EU’s trade commissioner, said that the UK would no longer be part of trade agreements negotiated by the EU with third countries once we leave. Re-joining EFTA as an interim arrangement would not only solve the Irish border issue but would address the issue of our trade with countries like South Korea and Mexico, as EFTA has negotiated free trade agreements with virtually all the countries with which the EU has FTAs.
It remains a mystery to many observers why this sensible option isn’t being pursued. For all its well-known faults as a long-term relationship, as a stopgap arrangement it is far better than the arrangement currently being discussed with the EU. Adopting it would put to bed a number of issues which should have been dealt with well before now and thus enable the Brexit debate to move on after being stuck in the same groove for far too long.
At last, an easy question!
Q: Customs union – stupidity or sabotage?
A: Sabotage. Almost no one’s that stupid.
A Custom’s Union is the Remainders ensuring that we are still tied to the United States of Europe. This would leave us just another ‘puppet on a string of Brussels’.
I dread to see the Union Jack flown at half-mast, below the White Flag of Surrender.
“Re-joining EFTA as an interim arrangement would not only solve the Irish border issue ……..”
The EU has made it fairly clear that it is going to make the UK regret leaving the EU, pour encourager les autres.
Has a temporary EFTA option been granted by the EU?
EFTA comes the four freedoms; ’nuff said.
A Customs Union.
A cabbage farmer complains to a Civil Servant ( CV ) That cabbages from another country are cheaper. This is joyful news to our cv. He sets up a department, phones his mate in the offending country and asks if we supply anything too cheap in his country. Each puts tarrifs on his expensive items. Sets up border customs officers, sends out letters to all concerned, monitors the effects, looks for other items and other countries. Job for life. Rising importance. Possible peerage. etc.
Our farmer cannot be arsed and grows spinach. The importer of TVs , buys tablets instead. No
ripples. Smooth as silk.
We have a successful customs union. Labour peers happy.
Perhaps I should have added that this is the first building block. The point being that this negotiation is all really about Civil Service jobs, and the more complicated it can be made, the better. Just like my Rarioning comments.
Not just the Civil Service, Local Government, N.G.O’s the so called voluntary sector, are stuffed full with nice middle class jobs , on nice salaries and perks doing ‘important work’ furthering the E.U. Most people have no idea how the e.u impinges into every day life. Why for example does the NHS need a Brussels office.
Makes B.L at it’s worse look like an efficient business by comparison!
I’ve rewritten this three times.
Customs unions/ free trade areas need examining in depth of concept not micromanagement. From within as well as from without. In health as well as wealth. Consideration of blocs and global. The affects on and of religions, core beliefs and ethics. Advances in technology. Who knows what our betters think. I think they want micromanagement ( Bring back rationing ). It’s what they know. That’s the point of negotiations. Maybe. I don’t know. Do they. I know the yanks think about it, but they’re run by politicians, like us. Management of crisis today.
The thing about the Customs Union is that trade has been weaponised by politicians who only see it as a weapon. not a benefit.
When you drive south from Newry, near Killeen, the road number changes from A1 to N1, and that’s it, you’re in the E.U. When you drive your car onto a ferry at Dover and get off in Calais, you change from driving on the left to driving on the right, that’s it, you’re in the E.U.
So if leaving the E.U is catastrophic in Killeen, why is it not disastrous in Calais?
Or are the Remainiacs conjuring up yet another, virtual and ridiculous, storm in a teacup.
The short answer is “both”; staying in any form of customs union with the EU is both stupid and an act of sabotage.
Exactly; it just makes me think that May had no intention of leaving just as she had no intention of controlling the borders as Home Secretary.
Traitors everywhere; no wonder or treason law was watered down or simply ignored.
It will be interesting to see how Theresa May ‘remains’ in power and keeps the UK within the EU Customs Union.
https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/
Nailed in one !