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Sam Lowe
@SamuelMarcLowe
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Being in a customs union with the EU does not mean that the EU negotiates trade deals on the UK's behalf. The UK would still need to negotiate its own trade deals.
The EU does not negotiate trade deals on behalf of Turkey, for example.
(I realise that my battle to police the distinction between a customs union and the common commercial policy is very much lost in the context of Brexit, but it's good to have a hobby.)
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Sam Lowe
@SamuelMarcLowe
Something I feel that is overlooked in the Westminster debate is that Ireland doesn’t actually want to incorporate Northern Ireland.
(If there was a border poll and that’s the way it went, then of course they would accept it ... but Ireland is not actively seeking reunification as an outcome.)
I’ve upset a few republicans, sorry. I should have been clear I was talking about the Irish government, and the timing (ie don’t want it forced upon them right now as a result of Brexit). @MatthewOToole2 spells it out more articulately that I ever could:
Read 3 tweets
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Sam Lowe
@SamuelMarcLowe
Glad we cleared that one up.
The House of Commons nearly wants a customs union, but not quite.
I ask again.
Read 3 tweets
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Sam Lowe
@SamuelMarcLowe
Checks 20 miles away from where the line is drawn on the map have the potential to be just as disruptive, in the Irish context, as checks on the line.
The reason the backstop works is because it removes the *need* for checks entirely, obviously. People celebrating such an outcome should go and have a chat with the PSNI about their thoughts about the difficulties and dangers inherent to enforcing controls at source.
Hard to get away from the idea that much of Westminster is treating the Irish border issue as an irritant, or even worse, a joke.
Read 5 tweets

Related threads

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Andrew Lilico
@andrew_lilico
EU voter friends - I wonder if you've ever wondered what it is that the UK has objected to about various things in the Brexit negotiations? If you have, this thread might be for you.
Let's start with EU citizens' rights. What the UK wanted was for EU citizens living in the UK to have the same rights as UK citizens post-Brexit. What the EU wanted was for EU citizens to have more rights than UK citizens. The UK conceded on that.
Next money. There are 3 boxes the money falls into. One (~€2-4bn) is payments for pensions & the like. The UK was always happy to pay those. A 2nd (€17-18bn) was the UK's EU membership fee out to end-2020. The UK was happy to pay that if it stayed a de facto member til then.+
Read 11 tweets
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Peter Foster
@pmdfoster
@MrHarryCole Well. It looks like chicken time...get EU to get IE to tweak backstop, on peril of a no-deal, and the very hard border both sides trying to avoid.

But some big probs with this strategy, or rather accessing the space where the tweak-for-a-deal gets done. 1/
@MrHarryCole 1. The EU don’t buy a U.K. govt wd ever go for a no deal. They just can’t see a rational govt inflicting that level of self-harm. When you’d still need to negotiate a deal - from your knees, with no legal roof (transition) and Irish/Spanish vetos in play /2
@MrHarryCole 2. The ERG are so far out of the deal zone (Brady/Murrison that wants to rip up irish protocol and replace with one line of “we commit to no hard border”. Not sure that offer even opens a discussion in Brussels. /3
Read 11 tweets
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Derrick Berthelsen
@DerrickBerthel1
1/Polling by BMG on Brexit and May’s withdrawal agreement some thoughts:
bmgresearch.co.uk/change-britain…
BMG interviewed more than ten thousand adults living in Great Britain
2/ The public reject Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement.
50% disapprove of the deal compared to just 25% that approve
3/ On a second referendum
51% want their MP to vote against a second referendum vs 45% who want their MP to vote for it
Read 12 tweets
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Henry Newman
@HenryNewman
A pre-dinner thread on the Customs Union, Customs Partnership and MaxFac options which I discussed this morning on @RidgeOnSunday
1) This never-ending circular discussion on customs union is painful. The question should have been settled during the referendum. When the leaders of Leave campiagn were talking about separate trade deals with US,Japan,China,Oz - they were talking of life outside a Customs Union
2) I watched back @michaelgove's iconic interview with Faisal Islam and he talks of "taking back control" of trade policy and someone deciding our trade with Britain's interests in mind not the EU28. No one can credibly watch that and think the plan was to stay in a customs union
Read 19 tweets
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Pete North
@PeteNorth303
1. A thread on #trade and aid.

One of the first tangible benefits of #Brexit I've seen is the emerging reform of @DFID_UK where it is becoming more of an arm of trade policy than a state owned humanitarian NGO. I would like that to go much further and rethink trade.
2. I do not think we should be wasting too much effort on free trade deals largely because they are of questionable value and encourage inefficient value chains. Any work on tariffs should really be reserved for multilateral activity.
3. Instead we need DfID as the spearhead of our trade policy. There is no reason why we cannot pursue humanitarian goals and enhance our trade while we are at it. For a start we can do a lot with medicines and pharmacy products.
Read 21 tweets
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Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke
@kevinhorourke
A reminder that the frictionless trade people are calling for here depend on the UK as a whole staying in a customs union and single market arrangement with the EU....

theguardian.com/business/2018/…
As the European Council's negotiating guidelines agreed in March put it, "Being outside the Customs Union and the Single Market will inevitably lead to frictions in trade."
That isn't a negotiating position but a well-known and well-understood statement of fact. The @EUCouncil shouldn't have to spell it out in a document like this but with HMG you have to. Unfortunately.
Read 4 tweets

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