A month-long series of talks on the Irish border has ended in stalemate, with the UK accused of peddling “imaginary” solutions to very real Brexit problems.
UK plans to either pre-clear trusted traders or collect tariffs on behalf of the EU were again rejected by officials in Brussels last Wednesday 18 April.
“The rejection of the UK customs proposals is not new,” a senior EU source told EUROPE.
No new proposals were tabled by British negotiators over the course of five separate meetings in March and April, with the UK instead referring to the August papers. “Nothing has changed” in the UK position, said a senior official involved in the talks.
“The proposals have not really changed since last year, when it was already pointed out they were not workable,” said a diplomat briefed on Wednesday's talks.
Last summer, the UK suggested a “customs partnership” - where it would collect EU tariffs on imports destined for the European market, and UK tariffs on the rest - or a “highly streamlined customs arrangement” based on tracking technology and pre-clearance for “trusted” and smaller traders.
The two options were dismissed by the EU at the time as “magical thinking”, and even the UK said they were untested and could take years to implement.
Britain’s Daily Telegraph said the UK’s ideas were subjected to a “systematic and forensic annihilation” on Wednesday during a meeting between Olly Robbins, UK prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit adviser, and EU deputy chief negotiator Sabine Weyand.
EU officials believe neither of the two customs options will avoid a visible border because they only deal with tariffs and customs formalities, not the multitude of health and safety checks required to trade within the EU’s single market.
That’s why the EU says the UK must agree to a ‘backstop’ solution for the Irish border independent of any potential future deal on customs.
But the UK is still opposing draft language for the ‘backstop’ that would keep Northern Ireland within the EU’s “customs territory” and part of a “common regulatory area” for goods.
It leaves in doubt an unofficial June deadline for agreeing the ‘backstop’.
“I don’t think we’ll be reaching where we were expecting to by June,” said one diplomat. “There will be a stormy autumn ahead.”
Meanwhile, the UK has doubled down on its insistence to leave the customs union, despite the House of Lords this week voting to amend the UK’s own withdrawal bill to include the idea (see EUROPE 12005).
EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier said on French television this Friday that there were “serious difficulties and risks” still to overcome before a final Brexit deal can be done.
EU officials are also keen to separate the Irish border talks from talks on the future relationship, including trade.
A first round of talks on the future took place this week, but this only lasted an hour and was focused on form rather than content. The UK still hopes to agree a detailed trade deal before Brexit day in March 2019, but the EU rejects the idea.
“If David Davis wants, by October, a 50-page detailed document about the future relationship, that’s pretty crazy to expect,” said one EU diplomat.
The next round of Brexit talks is scheduled for the first week of May, though it is unclear whether UK Brexit minister David Davis and EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier will take part.
The two have not met since mid-March. (Sarah Collins)