Posted on 08/23/2019 2:11:20 AM PDT by Cronos
Johnson wants to drop the backstop - an insurance policy to keep the border between British-run Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland open under all circumstances after Brexit - from the stalled deal.
..The rest of the EU, including Ireland, say the backstop is crucial to maintaining peace on the island...
Below are the main points in the Alternative Arrangements Commission report Johnson praised ahead of meetings and the response it received in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
..The Commission’s interim report proposed what it described as a multi-layered approach of various measures that would harness “existing technologies and customs best practice” and “should” be fully up and running within threeyears.
They included the introduction of a tiered, mutually-recognized Trusted Trader Programme to cover businesses large and small. The largest operators that cross the border frequently would avoid checks by submitting self-assessed customs paperwork on a quarterly basis.
It proposed the establishment of special economic zones away from but close to the border, suggesting areas 30-50km within each side between the Northern Irish and Irish Republic and further east between the town of Newry to the north and Dundalk inthe south.
...Manufacturing Northern Ireland, the main lobby group for the sector, said the report left fundamental questions unanswered and would lump costs and complexities onto a business community with neither the capacity, experience nor capital required to deliver untested solutions. It would “kill firms, damage consumers and inflict a level of surveillance onto border communities which doesn’t have their consent,” the group said.
The Federation of Small Businesses, Northern Ireland’s largest business lobby, said that while many of the proposals in the report were feasible, they could lead to additional costs and administrative burdens and that it was unsure whether such a series of cascading, phased solutions would solve the issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
All of this is very, very late - even optimistically the technological solutions will be ready only by 2023
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