Thursday, 9 July 2020

Cabinet split to inspire new Observer cartoon?

The Graun today has a story of that old-fashioned thing, a Cabinet split over Brexit

Liz Truss warns Boris Johnson over Brexit border plans
International trade secretary tells PM and chancellor plans risk smuggling and damage to UK reputation

Truss supported both sides at different times, I recall, during the Great Debate. 
Gove unveiled the new border Brexit regime last month for traders, announcing that customs and health checks required for goods imported from the EU would not be imposed immediately and instead be phased in over six months.

In a letter, leaked to a business website, and somehow finding its way to the Guran, Truss warns that:
.. the “staged approach” would “be vulnerable” to legal challenge by the World Trade Organization which could object to goods coming in from the EU being treated differently to goods coming in from elsewhere which are already subject to tariffs and quotas.
She also raises concerns over smuggling because full checks will not be in place for all goods coming into the UK at borders from 1 January....“I would like assurances that we are able to deliver full control at these ports by July 2021 and that plans are in place from January to mitigate the risk of goods being circumvented from ports implementing full controls,” she wrote....Thirdly [?this seems the same point], she is concerned that some unscrupulous traders from outside the EU could exploit the lack of controls and get their goods across the border without tariffs or checks.
She reveals that the digital application of the special tariff regime for Northern Ireland has been deemed “high risk” and “HMRC are planning to apply the EU tariff as a default to all imports in NI from 1 January 2021”....“This is very concerning as this may call into question NI’s place in the UK customs territory,” Truss wrote in relation to the potential imposition of tariffs.
Oddly, Barnier made the same threat recently 

I hope this will inspire the Obsever cartoonist to add another element to his cartoon template. We have had swinging demolition balls, cliff edges, bottomless pits, unicorns and ogres. Perhaps we shall see Truss wrapped in an NI banner, fighting off smugglers with substandard goods in their boats while a demonic Cummings suns himself on a beach in Northumberland with a sign pointing to Barnard Castle?




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