Posted on 10/03/2019 10:37:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Brexit is now hanging in the balance after the U.K. government submitted last-ditch proposals to the EU as the departure date of October 31 fast approaches.
The proposals involved new plans to get around the so-far intractable issue of the Irish “backstop” designed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland. The new proposals would see would see Northern Ireland (a part of the U.K.) stay in the European single market for goods but leave the customs union. This would mean customs checks would take place but these would be away from the border, according to the U.K. government.
The EU cautiously welcomed some of the proposals but said more work needed to be done on other parts of the plans, such as substantive customs rules, Reuters reported. EU Commission President Jean-Claude Junker said Wednesday that he welcomed the U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “determination to advance Brexit talks.”
Johnson presented the proposals to a fractious U.K. Parliament on Thursday, telling the lower chamber that they were a compromise that achieved a deal and honored the referendum result.
“They do not deliver everything that we would have wished. They do represent a compromise,” Johnson said. “But to remain a prisoner of existing positions is to become a cause of deadlock rather than breakthrough.” He said the government had “made a genuine attempt to bridge the chasm, to reconcile the apparently irreconcilable. And to go the extra mile as time runs short.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
It hit me a couple of days ago, inspired by a poster here.
The populist and trump phenomenons are not just a US thing. They are not just a british or Australian thing. It is a worldwide thing. And it is not democrat vs conservative, climate change alarmist vs denier or anything like that.
It’s Globalists vs Nationalists.
And it’s a worldwide fight.
I have often wondered why don’t the British and Irish just leave their border as it is? What could or would Brussels do?
Brexit is not in the balance. It happens 10/31/2019 with or without a deal.
“Then just drive over the border and illegally enter the UK. It would become like our border with Mexico, a magnet for illegals and illegal activities.”
Northern Ireland isn’t known for a strong economy. It’s one of the weakest in Western Europe.
Things have changed there since 1912, when ships like the Titanic were built in Belfast.
My suggest as to the Irish tariff problem is select equalization.
Perhaps just having the UK agree to EU-wide tariffs on select (mainly high-priced) goods not from the EU or UK is the way to go. The specified goods might be:
1. furniture, as specified by the European Parliament
2. home appliances [commonly costing more than 50 Euros each], i.e. refrigerators, stoves, ovens, washing machines, dryers, cleaning robots, lawn-mowing robots
3. motor vehicle parts [commonly costing more than 100 Euros each?] (when not owned by a manufacturer or a directly authorized importer)
4. wine (when not higher than the existing rate)
5. consumer photo-electronic goods [commonly costing more than 50 Euros each], i.e. TVs, PCs, SLR cameras & lenses, movie projectors, specified mobile phones and audiophile equipment
Goods having at least 50% value-added content from Commonwealth countries and former colonial possessions of Great Britain other than Hong Kong probably should be made exempt from equalization agreement (except when shipped to Northern Ireland).
It’s really the Irish Republic that is claiming it has concerns, over a small amount of possible tariff revenue loss and its ability to sell its agricultural products to the EU.
Ireland can not as it is an EU member. Additionally, the border issue, whilst tamed by the Good Friday Agreement and EU membership of Britain is still contentious. Why not just finally reunite Ireland and make it a nation once again. The Partition in 1922 was horrible.
Ireland is not part of the UK and will not be exiting the EU with the UK. Truth is the EU has brought about a nearly United Ireland that people on both sides have gotten very used to. Irish products made in the ROI and NI go back and forth across the border much like products move between LA County and Orange County.
there are no Tariffs between EU countries. However, there will be once again with Brexit.
NO HARD BORDER
Not quite. Although the Republic is in the EU, it's not in the Schengen open-borders zone. (The UK isn't either). This means that anybody flying to Dublin from elsewhere in the EU has to pass through passport control. Existing EU citizens have automatic right of entry: but anybody else only gets in if the Republic wants to let them in.
There's a separate bilateral Common Travel Area agreement with the UK: so that arrivals from the UK, alone among EU countries, don't have to pass through passport control.
...or more accurately, didn't rather than don't. Despite the Common Travel Area, there's been an increasing tendency in recent years for the Irish authorities to require ID from arrivals from the UK.
Forget their silly rules.
And
Just walk away.
EU parliament: Boris Johnson Brexit plan not remotely acceptable
Oct 3, 2019
The Guardian (UK)
Ireland is Brussel’s bitch, so they’d have to do whatever Brussles told them to.
Ireland is already outside the EU’s Schengen agreement that gives open borders between EU states who are part of it, but they are in a common travel area with Britain and have been since independence. Unfortunately, Ireland are already even more useless than HM Immigration services when it comes to protecting their borders. If it were up to me I’d hand NI over to the republic (whilst granting NI residents the right to British citizenship) and then scrap the CTA and the rights and privilages granted to Irish citizens that make them virtually indistinguishable from British citizens. Its long past time we started treating Ireland like the foreign country it is and has been since 1922.
But what if they don’t? What if they say sorry EU this is Ireland and we aren’t going to have a hard border crossing with fellow Irishman? What can the bureaucrats do? Throw pencils at them?
The Irish are loyal to the EU because they are seen as a bulwark against British influence, which they have always and forever will have a chip on their shoulder about. They won’t go against Brussels. If it causes trouble in NI with paramilitaries then they can blame the UK for causing it through Brexit.
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