Brexit discussion thread XIV (Please read OP before posting)

Yea, so if I ordered something through a friend in N.I and it was addressed and sent to them, it would be taken as it's staying in N.I and go in the green lane, when delivered by truck/van

A smugglers dream come true😅

So what’s to stop something that went through the green lane continuing onto the south and thus the single market?

Less checks means more goods being smuggled across the border - which weakens our position in the EU Single Market.

And why are we risking that happening? Oh yeah, it because we are in Narnia and keep insisting that the international frontier on our island isn’t an international frontier even though it is and the last opinion polls in NI show the union would still command a 2:1 majority, even after the Brexit mess, in a referendum on the status of NI.

Most products from GB, will have a zero tariff (TCA). This will not be easy for smugglers to profit from.

The SM is about standards, rules and regulations. Breaking these standards, rules and regulations will be much harder to monetize for smugglers.

Remember all products must be IT registered and be available to the EU online and in real time.

Trade is not much about tariffs nowadays, it's mostly about NTBs.

Lars 😀

Isn't there a risk that goods of less regulatory standards, either made in GB or imported from outside the EU, can then be substituted for higher standard products and shipped through NI and into the EU?

How would that be checked?

Horse meat for example. Substitute that into burgers which were previously up to the standard, to save money and ship them through NI to shops in Ireland or elsewhere. Creating a competitive price advantage.

It is a mistake to believe EU goods are not checked. They are just not checked at border crossings. Finding horse meat will require a (now simple) DNA test, I believe. This is a task for food safety officials in all EU27 countries.

Import of meat from e.g. USA and Brazil requires EU inspectors in these countries to certify the meat (mostly no hormone, no GMO).

This is where SPS alignment UK-EU will benefit UK trade.

Lars 😀

I haven't read the fine print, but I believe something was said about the green lane being still subject to spot checks by customs officials. Anyone trying that trick and getting caught would obviously be in a fair spot of bother (effectively trying to smuggle goods into the EU Single Market).

I'm really confused. Is Johnson now trying to protect the deal he threatened to rip up. The same one he wrote ?

It's definitely confusing. Nobody can be really sure whether Johnson is saying he's a fan of the Protocol that he signed or has turned against it - his position sounds quite contradictory.

My reading of it is that he doesn't want the "Protocol Bill", the bill that is going through parliament that allows British ministers to renege on the "Protocol Agreement" and thus break international law scrapped.

It looks like that bill is something RS is willing to dump as part of his negotiations.