First, as a
retired export documentation officer I recognized at once, when the Withdrawal
Agreement was reached with the EU by Boris Johnson last year, that it would
require some border checks to be viable, however much the Prime Minister may
want to pretend it would not. As his chief negotiator David Frost, who had
previously had responsibility for the issuing of certificates of origin, must
have explained to him, Northern Ireland being now both in the UK and EU had
become de facto a separate legal entity in trade terms. Without documentary
checks, whether on the Irish Sea or elsewhere, EU or Irish goods crossing into
Northern Ireland could then possibly be re-exported duty free to the United
Kingdom, and also on to those countries like Japan or USA with whom the UK was
planning to have a trade treaty. Similarly, goods in free circulation in the UK
could then freely enter the EU via Northern Ireland. By advocating no customs
controls in the Irish Sea to enforce its dual status the PM was facilitating
the creation of an eventual fraudsters' paradise in Northern Ireland. The EU,
which will defend its precious single market to the death, could not tolerate
any attempt by the UK to subvert it in this way. Nor is such a solution in the interests
of the UK's internal market.
Secondly,
as a former Chairman of the Polish Solidarity Campaign, who has campaigned and
continues to campaign for democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, let me
assure "Sunday Telegraph" readers that were a bill that states
"have effect notwithstanding any relevant international or domestic law
with which they may be incompatible or inconsistent....." be passed
through the Mother of Parliaments it will be quoted unremittingly by any tinpot
authoritarian leader in that area to justify their own future breaches of their
international UN or EU legal obligations. How shameful that would be for
Britain.
Composed 08.10.2020
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