Just had this hilarious thought: if the EU conducts a trade deal with eg Australia an Australian company can export to Northern Ireland without any tariffs, then can transport across Irish Sea to GB, evading UK’s tariffs
Slight error: EU trade deal with Aus won’t apply to NI, so Aus goods face UK tariff when coming to NI. What could happen however is those Aus companies exporting to IE, then via NI going across to GB, undercutting UK tax. Whole new network of smuggling opportunities awaits...
And of course it would be the easiest thing in the world for those Aus goods to slip from Ireland to NI without facing any UK tariffs. So NI will benefit from all the EU’s trade deals, just illegally. HMRC will be ecstatic.
