Brexit: Common customs area ‘could solve problem of hard border’

Unionist speculation on the idea was heightened on Tuesday night when Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appeared to relax his negotiating position and said that in the event of a no-deal Brexit, he would seek “full alignment” between the Republic and UK on customs regulations.

“We’d have to negotiate an agreement on customs and regulations that meant full alignment, so there will be no hard border,” he said.

His comments came only hours after Brussels broke ranks and volunteered that Brexit without its proposed deal with the UK must result in a hard Irish border, with the EU insisting on customs checks in order to protect its common customs area.

Brussels and Dublin have been pressing for the UK to accept the proposed EU-UK deal, which unionists argue would leave NI still inside the EU customs union and weaken the UK by placing new customs checks between NI and GB.

However, some unionists are now arguing that since there is no sign that Westminster will compromise on the issue, Dublin should protect its primary trading relationship – with the UK – by relaxing its customs status to move closer to the UK’s.

In effect, this could create a new EU customs border between the UK and the Republic collectively, thus negating the need for EU customs checks on the Irish border.

At the end of last month Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Dublin had not ended talks about waivers on EU rules – which would be necessary to align Irish customs regulations with the UK in this manner.

Asked if the Republic would need any waivers to avoid a hard border, he said: “That will be an ongoing conversation. We don’t have anything like a conclusion to that discussion yet.”

Asked by the News Letter if conversations with Brussels on waivers were still ongoing, an Irish Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman did not deny the suggestion.

Instead, he said Dublin has been planning for Brexit “taking account of a range of possible outcomes” to avoid a hard border in the event of no deal.

TUV leader Jim Allister argued there is no need for a hard border if the Republic seeks special EU status to ease trade restrictions with the UK in the event of no deal, instead of seeking EU special status for NI.

“In its fullest form, this could constitute a common British Isles Customs area with EU approval,” he said.

The European Commission declined to say if this was feasible.

The UUP also said Dublin should try to opt out of EU customs regulations, pointing out it has already set a precedent by opting out of EU common travel regulations.

The Republic previously opted out of the EU Schengen Agreement, which abolished many EU internal borders in 1995, and enables passport-free movement across most of the bloc.

Now UUP leader Robin Swann has repeated his call for Dublin to resolve the hard border dilemma by seeking waivers on EU customs rules and achieving a similar opt-out on EU customs regulations.

“We have already made a call to see the Common Travel Area (CTA) for people replicated for goods,” he said.

“The CTA for people has operated perfectly well and saw the Republic of Ireland negotiate to opt out of Schengen. We desperately need to see the same creativity and pragmatism in the coming weeks.”

Mr Swann called on Dublin to engage with the UK to resolve the hard border dilemma, saying a no-deal Brexit would be “disastrous” for NI.

He also said it was “totally reckless” for Brussels to start “throwing around threats of a hard border” for the first time on Tuesday.