MANCHESTER, England — With time running out for a deal on Brexit, the Irish government and European Union officials have rejected the latest British thinking on how to resolve an impasse over the Irish border, a serious setback to prospects for a breakthrough.
Progress on the border issue is urgent if Britain is to agree with the European Union on the terms of its withdrawal, which is scheduled to take effect at the end of the month. Leaving without an agreement, experts warn, would mean a disorderly, possibly chaotic and damaging rupture.
The latest British plan, a set of informal proposals given to European negotiators, would create customs sites or zones to check goods on both sides of the border, and place tracking devices on trucks to monitor their movements. Parts of the plan were leaked, and made public Monday night by the Irish broadcaster RTE.
The idea of custom check zones was described in a post on Twitter as a “nonstarter” by Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney.
European officials have said that they have not yet received any formal proposals from the British government, but they have been making it clear that the leaked plan would be unacceptable. The reactions suggested that the two sides were nowhere near an agreement on the thorny issue with the deadline looming large.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain confirmed on Tuesday that he would present a formal plan “fairly shortly.” A summit meeting of European Union leaders is scheduled for Oct. 17-18 — a gathering that many see as the last chance of striking a deal.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr. Johnson said that some of the reporting about his plan was “not quite right,” but he did not dispute the overall strategy: Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom; and the Republic of Ireland, a part of the European Union, would be in separate trading and customs systems, requiring checks on many goods that cross the border.
The prime minister dismissed as unacceptable the alternative of having most of the United Kingdom operate under one system, while Northern Ireland remains tied to a different set of rules.
“In the end, a sovereign, united country must have a single customs territory,” he said. “When the U.K. withdraws from the E.U., that must be the state of affairs that we have,” he added, noting that Britain and the European Union were approaching “the critical moment of choice about how we proceed.”
Some progress has been made. In discussions with the European Union, Mr. Johnson has already accepted that Northern Ireland could remain within the European Union’s trade umbrella for agricultural and some food products, but he has refused to make the same concession for other goods.
Currently, Ireland and the United Kingdom are both members of the European Union, operating under the same tariff rules and product standards, so there is no need to check goods crossing the border.
Mr. Johnson’s comments suggested that the checking sites he proposes would not need to be near the border. But the idea of physical checks on goods, even at locations away from the frontier, is likely to breach one of the European Union’s negotiating red lines.
For Ireland, the imposition of any form of border checks is sensitive because removing the physical infrastructure separating the two countries was a central element of the peace process that unfolded in the 1990s. And without the support of Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, the European Union is unlikely to agree to any new deal.
Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, negotiated an agreement with Brussels that would have kept the whole of the United Kingdom under Europe’s trade rules until a technological solution could be found to check trucks without stopping them. That arrangement, known as the Irish backstop, was reviled by hard-line Brexit supporters — one of the reasons Parliament rejected Mrs. May’s plan three times.
In a statement, Keir Starmer, Brexit spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, dismissed the latest British plans as “utterly unworkable.”
“They would place an enormous administrative burden on businesses and rely on technology that does not yet exist,” he added.
At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, in northwestern England, there had been some optimism that if Mr. Johnson could strike a deal in Brussels, it might be approved in Parliament. Speaking on Monday, one of the most hard-line supporters of Brexit, Mark Francois, said he would consider any plan Mr. Johnson returned with and vote for it if it delivered a satisfactory withdrawal.
But Mr. Johnson’s critics, both in the British opposition and in Brussels, contend that he is not negotiating in good faith and is happy to contemplate the prospects of a “no deal” Brexit despite the potential disruption that would cause.
Parliament has already passed legislation intended to prevent Britain from leaving the European Union without an agreement. But Mr. Johnson has insisted that Brexit will happen at the end of the month, with or without an agreement.
Lawmakers have refused to allow Mr. Johnson to call a general election until he has requested another Brexit extension, something he has promised not to do.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/01/world/europe/brexit-irish-border.html
2019-10-01 10:51:00Z
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