Tony Connelly - Brexit: The return of no-deal and the Irish border
www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2019/0628/1059105-brexit-deal-border/
The EU currently has 17 frontiers with third countries.
With no-deal the Irish land border would be the 18th.
The baseline position is that under EU customs rules there is a well-known set of regulatory obligations that member states are required to enforce in managing a border with a third country.
This covers
the collection of tariff duties, which goes into the EU’s "own resources" when it comes to the EU’s budget.
Some 63 checks and controls in all make up a spectrum of customs, regulatory, fiscal, safety and security checks.
While it is impossible to impose a hierarchy,
the most important would probably be within the "sanitary and phyto-sanitary" sphere, or SPS, given the scale of cross-border trade in agri-food.
In order to preserve food safety and animal health, all member states have signed up to an increasingly strict set of rules.
Border Inspection Posts (BIPs) are required because of the very high level of regulatory controls under this rule-book.
These regulations do not leave much room for flexibility or innovation.
The rules are relatively clear and well known to customs officials,
and BIPs require infrastructure and planning.
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Alternative Arrangements Commissions (AAC) < Karlsson-aided fantasy from the Brexiters > ......
the proposal of a single animal health and food safety "area" comprising the island of Ireland and island of Great Britain was dismissed as a non-starter,
since it would mean Ireland having to exit parts of the single market.
........
the European Commission has set five tests that alternative arrangements will have to meet,
whether the freelance options by the AAC or the UK government’s own official ideas,
which can only be worked up jointly with the Commission once the Withdrawal Agreement is ratified.
These are that they must ensure no hard border;
they must comply with both the Union Customs Code and WTO rules;
they must treat all member states equally (ie, Ireland cannot become a semi-detached member through some joint SPS-zone with the UK);
and finally, they must comply with the objectives of the all-island economy.
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In a no-deal scenario .....
The EU has already declared that if the UK wants to quickly re-establish a trading relationship with the bloc
then it will have to accept a backstop-style agreement on the Irish border as a precondition,
alongside citizens’ rights and the exit bill.