‘Remainers thwarting Brexit!’ Britain could stay in the customs union for FIVE more years
BRITAIN has been warned the nation may need to remain in the customs union for another five years, increasing fears Remainers will exploit yet another way of thwarting the Brexit process.
David Davis: 100 per cent the UK will leave the customs union
Prime Minister Theresa May has asked officials to carry out more work on the two options which are now being considered by the Government to replace the customs union - a trade partnership and 'maximum facilitation' plan.
The first of these methods would involve the UK acting on behalf of the EU when imports arrive from the rest of the world.
This would see the UK apply the EU’s own tariffs and rules of origin to all goods arriving in the UK that are intended for the EU.
Maximum facilitation would aim to create as frictionless a customs border as possible, rather than removing it altogether.
This would see it employ new technologies - some of which are still being developed - and automation to streamline procedures while removing the need for physical customs checks wherever possible.
But both methods have been rejected by the EU, adding to momentum for Remainers who believe that remaining in the customs union is the only viable option if Britain is to solve the Irish border problem.
But senior officials in both Whitehall and Brussels have said Britain will need to remain in the customs union until 2023 before it is ready to implement either of these post-Brexit customs arrangements.
In a briefing to the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee earlier this week, senior civil servants told MPs that the complex technology needed to operate Britain’s borders after Brexit may not be ready for another five years.
One Whitehall source told the Daily Telegraph: “The estimate is that it would take five years to get the new technology up and running.
“Olly Robbins said it could be done by 2022 at a pinch, but most people think that even five years is an optimistic estimate.
“The Remainers will try to use it to keep us in the customs union for good, and they will then argue that we might as well be in the single market as well.
“The frustrating thing about all this is that Number 10 has not done the work to prepare us for leaving the customs union.
“It’s two years on from the referendum now - it’s not as if they weren’t warned.”
Brexiteers now have increasing concerns that Remainers in Parliament will use this possible delay to keep Britain in the customs union and even the single market.
The Government has struggled to agree the route Britain will take on a future customs relationship with the EU after a meeting of the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee failed to back Mrs May’s plan for the customs partnership method with Brussels.
This was rejected by a majority of the 11-strong committee, with Cabinet Brexiteers now expecting the Government to concentrate on the maximum facilitation arrangement.
Mrs May will likely delay holding votes on Brexit bills until Autumn in a bid to avoid a humiliating defeat in the Commons over the customs union, after she was informed she does not have the numbers to defeat rebel Tory MPs.
The Prime Minister has been told by Chief Whip Julian Smith that the Government will probably lose a crucial vote in Parliament that calls for ministers to make a customs union with the EU one of its Brexit negotiating objectives.
During a House of Commons session yesterday, Brexit Minister David Davis insisted he remains “100 percent” confident of leaving the customs union on December 31, 2020, but warned the latest amendments risk "undermining" negotiations with Brussels.