Leo Varadkar: “What we are open to, and always have been open to, is alternative arrangements that perhaps could avoid a hard border, through procedures and technologies and so on.
What we expect, and I don’t think it’s unreasonable – we want to see that fleshed out, we want to see it exist, it demonstrated before we are willing to give up the backstop”
Speaking on Irish National Broadcaster RTÉ’s Marian Finucane programme, the taoiseach said it was “alarming” some leading Conservatives were suggesting a no-deal Brexit.
“It’s a legal guarantee and legally operable guarantee that we will never see a hard border again,” Mr Varadkar said of the backstop.
He also responded to calls for a time limit to be attached to the backstop.
You can read the article here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48647656
Source: BBC
“Supporters of Brexit are “completely wrong” if they think recourse to an obscure trade rule will stop tariffs springing up overnight if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal”, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Friday.
Some British politicians have suggested that in the event of a “no deal Brexit”, Article 24 of the World Trade Organization’s General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade can be invoked to keep Britain and the EU trading without tariffs.
“It is completely wrong,” Malmstrom told Reuters.
“They will have to trade with us and other countries, until there are trade agreements – and we hope that will be a trade agreement – on the ‘most favoured nation’ basis. And that will mean new tariffs.”
The “most favoured nation” basis is a misnomer because it means no special treatment.
Trade experts have repeatedly poured cold water on the idea that Article 24 could soften the economic blow of a “no deal” Brexit, but they say the claim keeps resurfacing.
Article 24 is a clause in the WTO rules that countries can use if they agree to a trade deal and want to declare an interim trade agreement, along with a plan and a timeframe for the full deal to take shape.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage wrote in February in the pro-Brexit Daily Telegraph that “if we apply to the WTO, and Article 24 of the GATT Treaty is used with both the consent of us and the EU, we would have a minimum of two years with no tariffs and quotas during which a trade deal could be concluded”.
On Monday, a former leader of Britain’s governing Conservative party, Iain Duncan Smith, explained in the same paper why he was backing Boris Johnson to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.
“Boris… believes that we should offer a trade deal and, while that is being negotiated, we should seek an implementation agreement with the EU under which we will both go to the WTO and invoke Article 24, which allows us to continue tariff free trade until the final deal is agreed,” he wrote.
Source: Reuters
Did you know there is an online tool for anyone to look up barriers to their products and markets of interest? The WTO facility #ePingAlert is useful for exporters, importers, governments – big and small.
This is a great online tool that I use frequently.
Check a video about the facility here: The ePing Alert
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