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The UK’s proposal to “sort of stay in the customs union” for a temporary period falls short for two reasons, An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar told the final Getting Brexit Ready Conference on Thursday.
He said that Ireland needs a guarantee that there won’t be a hard border between north and south and that is what the backstop is about.
“If the UK wants to stay in the customs union then we would be very happy, it would help us in relation to Northern Ireland and it will help us in relation to east-west trade.
“They are proposing that for a temporary period they would sort of stay in the customs union and that falls short for two reasons.
An Tánaiste Simon Coveney highlighting how milk, lambs and cattle cross the border for processing, says farmers operate from the same rule book on #CAP - all of this is a creator of normalisation on both sides of the border #BrexitReady #Brexit pic.twitter.com/kB3GXhMENR
— Amy Forde (@amyforde6) October 25, 2018
“First of all it’s temporary, and the backstop can be temporary but it can’t have an expiry date. It can be temporary until we have a permanent agreement but it can’t have an expiry date.
“There’s also the whole issue around the level playing field and what the European Union and Ireland are rightly saying is that we need to protect the integrity of the European single market.
I think there is a misunderstanding particularly by some in London – this isn’t simply about the physical border infrastructure itself
"That’s not an ideological thing – that’s saying to the UK that if you’re going to stay in some sort of customs arrangement and you’re going to have access to the single market well you can’t undercut us on labour standards, on health standards, on environmental standards, on workers’ rights, on state-aids and competition.
“Businesses in Ireland and France and the Netherlands need to know that whatever happens after Brexit, we’re not going to have a big neighbour that tries to undercut us on all of those different issues,” he said.
Misunderstanding in London
An Tánaiste Simon Coveney was also speaking at Thursday’s event and he said that there is a misunderstanding in London when it comes to the Irish border.
“This time last year we effectively made the strategic decision that we could no longer allow this negotiation to keep progressing… unless we got some core commitments that could reassure people on the island of Ireland that we’re not going to allow as an unintended consequence to Ireland, to undermine a peace process, to undermine an all-island economy that has been part of re-enforcing that peace process and certainly not to allow a situation where we are forced into accepting the re-emergence of border infrastructure.
“I think there is a misunderstanding particularly by some in London – this isn’t simply about the physical border infrastructure itself, although that conjures up awful memories for lots of people.
“It’s about recognising that if two jurisdictions don’t operate to the same rulebook, the same standards, the same regulations, then there is no way of creating a level playing field on the all-island economy without having some impediment to trade or some tariff mechanism to equalise that relationship,” he said.
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