There was no need for the government to say the U.K. had to leave the customs union as a result of Brexit. The issue was not on the ballot paper. The policy was chosen by the government, not the referendum. We now know for sure that it was the wrong choice.
Wrong for the U.K. economy.
Wrong for Northern Ireland.
Wrong for British business.
Wrong for the people of this country who will pay the price.
And now wrong for the government, who face defeat on it.
There are, however, times when U turns must be done. This is one of them. And a U turn there must be.
This will not solve Northern Ireland: only the single market can do that. But let's take one U turn at a time. This one's time has come. May needs to deliver, now.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
There is a genuine distinction between THE CU & A CU.
THE CU is comprised of the EU member states (plus some odds & sods: Monaco and some UKish territories not part of the EU: Akrotiri, IOM, Guernsey, Jersey) and excludes some oddities which might be expected to be there (e.g. Faroe Islands).
A (bilateral) CU exists between EU and each of Andorra, San Marino & Turkey.
Therefore, it is true that UK leaves THE CU in March 2019 (unless Brexit is delayed or scrapped), although it could be replaced by A bilateral CU (perhaps on identical terms).
Semantics anyone?
Technically his point makes sense but I must admit that it sounds like something that Sir Humphrey Appleby would be trying to explain to a perplexed Jim Hacker in Yes Minister.
Seems unlikely. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/23/downing-street-rules-out-u-turn-on-customs-union-pledge
That looks like the Chairman’s vote of confidence for the manager to me….
“Seems unlikely. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/apr/23/downing-street-rules-out-u-turn-on-customs-union-pledge”
It was only a month or so ago May was saying FoM would definitely end in March 2019.
This will be interesting. We’ll see what calibre of politicians we’ve elected now.
On both sides of the House.
Oh yes, Andy, indeed. Over to those few Tories who have any courage or principles, and do actually care about this country rather than wrapping themselves in the union jack and spouting drivel about ‘gaining our freedom from the Brussels disctatorship.’
Andy Crow says: “We’ll see what calibre of politicians we’ve elected now.”
It begins with “self-serving” and eventually ends with quite a lot that’s unprintable.
But isn’t it ironic that the 2nd largest unelected legislature in the world may have a benign influence on the final outcome. Ah, that’s democracy for you.
Nevermind, we’ve another royal sprog to look forward to. But they’ll need to up their workrate to keep us distracted right through to next March.
Yes, and another wedding too! Gosh, I’m so excited!!! Never mind the ever increasing numbers of homeless, the treatment of benefit claimants, the suicides of disabled people, the collapse of public services, the Windrush scandal, the blatant attempt at vote rigging now being pioneered, and the disaster that is Brexit.
Never mind the things that matter, just let ourselves be distracted by this nonsense. I’m not a fervent republican any more than I am a monarchist, but sometimes………
An independent republic of Scotland looks increasingly attractive, despite the Scottish weather!
Sickof taxdodgers says:
“An independent republic of Scotland looks increasingly attractive, despite the Scottish weather!”
What’s the matter with the weather ?
Sunstroke ? Wear a higher factor sunscreen and quit whinin’ 🙂
G Hewitt says:
“…. what calibre of politicians we’ve elected now.”
“It begins with “self-serving” and eventually ends with quite a lot that’s unprintable.”
Oh ! Come on G ! Fairs fair . There are one or two really good people in there. 🙂
Are you saying if we stay into the customs union we are able to have our own trade talks with the rest of the world.
We can talk now to the rest of the world
I understood that if we remain in the customs union, we couldn’t do our own FTAs with other countries.
The whole point of the CU is for the whole CU to apply the same tariffs (and other barriers) to goods entering from outside the CU. No one member of the CU can do its own thing.
We’d be subject to the EU tariffs regime with no input into it (unless the CU deal gave us some special seat at the table on trade).
Happy to be corrected if I have misunderstood.
But tariffs are not an issue: if we do not do EU ones we do WTO ones
There is no way we will have agreements with most countries
This is all a red-herring
Thanks, but I think my point was that if we remain in the CU, we’d be tariff free with other members of the CU, but we’d have to stick to the same EU tariff regime for outside-CU trade.
So by staying in the CU, we simply can’t do an FTA with, say, the US or Australia. The US and Australia did an FTA together in about 14 months – I’d think the UK could do one with either country in about that time. And for countries that already have a FTA with the EU (eg Canada), it would be a fairly simple job given we know what both sides would agree to (ie wouldn’t need much change from the existing EU deal)
However, if we stay in the CU with the EU we simply couldn’t do one with either US or Australia – not allowed. We’d need to wait for the EU to do one with those countries, which seems to be taking forever.
You really think that we can be tariff free with the EU if we leave?
How do you think we win from having tariffs with them?
Adam S says:
“I understood that if we remain in the customs union, we couldn’t do our own FTAs with other countries.”
I think you’ll find our arms manufacturers are not much constrained by current trading terms 🙂
G Hewitt says:
Nevermind, we’ve another royal sprog to look forward to.” ”
And no extra charge to the civil list for a third child, eh ?
Well there is a way to get that 3rd child onto the civil list benefits system and a nice lady from London came up to Scotland the other week to tell women how therapeutic it would be to relive their trauma.
And people will still vote for people like her.
There are so many things wrong for the citizens of this country, and Brexit is its apotheosis.
I fear the Ukippy fruitcake faction of the Tories seem determined to drive this destructive nonsense through.
“There was no need for the government to say the U.K. had to leave the customs union”
But I am so glad they did.
Now that they have made a mess out of the EU talks, annoyed the Irish, looked like a right general mess, misled the public and then end up having to back down making it clear to all that they had no idea what they were getting themselves and every one else into, I like it.
It is just so fitting for them.
Marco Fante says:
“Now that they have made a mess out of the EU talks, annoyed the Irish, looked like a right general mess, misled the public and then end up having to back down making it clear to all that they had no idea what they were getting themselves and every one else into, I like it.”
I’m afraid I like it too. But in real terms it gives me no deep pleasure to wish to see my own national government humiliated. It just highlights what a desperate state we’ve got into.
Adam S
“The whole point of the CU is for the whole CU to apply the same tariffs (and other barriers) to goods entering from outside the CU. No one member of the CU can do its own thing.”
What if the EU tariffs are inadequate? The strongest vote correlation amongst Leave voters in the UK’s EU Referendum would indicate EU tariffs imposed on Chinese imports are not high enough:-
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2870313
This would suggest the UK negotiates a new Customs Union with the EU that agrees to impose EU tariff rates but retains the right to increase them (not loer them) where it sees fit.
I have read that the UK government was instrumental in resisting tariffs on cheap Chinese steel. I am under the impression that far from promoting businesses based in the UK, they completely buy in to the “market” philosophy and price is their only consideration. I would think that they would buy completely into the tariff free world that allows huge corporations to relocate to where ever the cheapest labour can be found and then import those products back to the market they wish to access. In short, I do not trust our own government to look after our industry and penalise unfair competition. Also, from further back in the discussion, I cannot see the point in copying what the EU has in place for our own bilateral trade agreements. That just seems like a pointless waste of money on a pointless exercise and an admission that the EU has done a reasonable job with the tariff regime it has.
To be in THE Customs Union a country has to be a member of the EU. When the UK leaves the EU, by law it has to leave the Customs Union. If it so wanted it could then negotiate another customs union and whether or not this is to be done is open for debate. However, a customs union will not soften Brexit. When the UK leaves the EU it will be treated as a third country. The only way to prevent long queues of lorries at ports is to remain a member of the EEA and hence the single market.
It has been made clear it may stay in the CU and SM
You are playing semantics
That serves no purpose unless you think irritation a purpose
Naively I thought I was contributing to the debate with fact and supporting your view on the single market. I have not seen anything yet that states that the UK can stay in the Customs Union when they leave the EU. I say again that you have to be a member of the EU to be in the Customs Union. To be in some other form of customs union will only be able to be negotiated after the UK have left.
A customs union will not solve the border issue nor will it solve rules of origin.
You are wrong that this is semantics, this is fact. The only way we can keep trucks moving at borders is by staying in the EEA and hence the single market.
How by pointing this out am I using it for irritation purposes?
I feel unjustly accused Richard.
The EU seem to think we can stay in and solve the Irish border problem
I’m trusting they think this is possible…
I have to completely agree with J.G on this.
A Customs Union is only about one thing and that’s tariffs (Article 10 of the EEA Agreement does the same thing without a CU). It has nothing to do with border procedures such as phytosanitary controls, animal health etc etc.
I have heard some people from the EU say that but I don’t know where they are getting it from, its completely wrong as the EU’s own history shows with the CU enshrined in the 1968 Treaty of Rome but it wasn’t until 1st January 1993 that borders come down and that was with the Internal Market.