[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

But it does, Andrew. The Brexit vote was to leave the EU. To have any meaning at all, this means leaving the Common Market and Customs Union as well (or we can't trade with the rest of the world as we want to do).

The Customs Union has been seized on by the remainers as they see this as confusing the issue and alarming people into thinking that this is a deal breaker and there is no solution. But as Rees Mogg said very eloquently on the Andrew Marr programme last week, the Irish border question (which is being used as a battering ram by remainers to greatly exaggerate the 'problems of leaving the Customs Union') really is not the problem that many people think it is.

Arrangements based on the UK’s proposals for an expanded trusted trader scheme and exemptions for small traders is perfectly adequate to operate a border without infrastructure.

The key point is that modern technology means that physical customs posts, or even cameras, are no longer essential at borders. The use of mobile phone and GPS technology to track HGVs, together with the computer-based customs clearing which is the norm across much of the world is pretty well all that is required. Most of the goods traffic will be by companies with trusted trader status and with a no-tariffs deal, smuggling will not be profitable anyhow.

Although not yet in place, arrangements without physical infrastructure have been successfully trialled on the Norway-Sweden border. The only reason that they have not been adopted for general use on this border is that the existing border arrangements are satisfactory and hence the cost of new electronic systems is not justified.

This is not the serious problem it has been made out to be. It is a political ruse, nothing more, to detract from our determination to achieve a smooth but complete Brexit. Nothing less will satisfy the public, let alone the Brexiteers.

It's not a political ruse Old Boy. I appreciate that you may not be as pro-business as I am but I think you should try and make the effort to listen to what manufacturing businesses have to say on the subject of such borders and not turn an ear deafer than Corbyn's.

The government should not waste any more time or money exploring the so-called "maximum facilitation" option for future UK and EU customs, the manufacturers' association has said.
The max fac proposal – which would use technology to allow so-called “trusted traders” to cross the Northern Ireland and other EU borders freely after Brexit – has been slammed by EEF as "naïve" and "unrealistic", with "immense" consequences if it fails.
On a recent visit to Canada, the EEF chief executive, Stephen Phipson, was able to see how max fac works in practice across the country's border with the US. He claims that despite significant investment, only 100 of the most trusted Canadian companies were able to bypass customs checks.

http://www.cityam.com/286524/manufac...s-proposal-non

LONDON (Reuters) - British manufacturers turned up the pressure on the government to abandon one of its post-Brexit customs proposals on Tuesday, slamming the idea of a technology-based plan for border checks as naive and a waste of money.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-br...-idUKKCN1IT25I