Quoted from BuzzFeed
"Boris Johnson says: “Actually Northern Ireland has got a great deal. You keep free movement, you keep access to the single market.”
Boris Johnson spoke to local Conservative members in Northern Ireland on Thursday 19th March about his Brexit deal and it was… interesting. A video of part of his speech has gone viral — not least because the prime minister said how much of a “great deal” Northern Ireland was getting by staying in the EU's single market and keeping “free movement”, unlike the rest of the UK.
Johnson also insisted there would be no checks at all on goods going from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. But questions have been raised about some of his assertions — as well as his delivery, which some people likened to a drunk uncle at a wedding."
My comment on above:
I cannot accept what the PM is saying. If there are no border controls after December 2020 between GB and NI and NI continues to be part of the EU single market then every self-respecting smuggler or sharp trader will know that:
1/ EU goods can be delivered to an NI address without border checks or payment of tariffs and then shipped unchecked on to GB pretending to be NI goods:
2/ any GB goods can be delivered to an NI address without border checks and then shipped without paying any duty to the EU via Ireland by pretending to be NI goods
3/ Any manufacturer or trading company producing goods in the USA or Australia or any other country with which the UK will make a trade deal in the next couple of years will be able to deliver goods to NI via GB and pretend they are NI goods which can then travel into the EU via Ireland unchecked
4/ Similarly EU goods could cross into NI without paying tariff and eventually reach any of the UK's new trading partners pretending to be NI goods if no controls between NI and GB.
Agricultural goods in particular could be traded in this way.
Possibly this could be checked by customs officers checking documents internally wuithin NI and GB but that still amounts to customs control between NI and GB even if not at the actual border.
Boris Johnson's former Brexit Secretary of State Stephen Barclay admitted as much but he is now First Secretary to the Treasury and has no longer commented.
