MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Brexit controversy: Ireland against any “economic border” with North Ireland
“As far as this government is concerned there shouldn't be an economic border. We don't want one,” Prime Minister Varadkar told reporters at a briefing in Dublin. 
“It's Britain that has decided to leave and if they want to put forward smart solutions, technological solutions for borders of the future, that’s up to them” Ireland is against the imposition of an “economic border” with Northern Ireland and the Irish government is not going to help Britain design one, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.
He was speaking after Northern Irish protestant politicians propping up British Prime Minister Theresa May's minority government reacted with fury to a report that Dublin wants customs checks on boats and planes between Britain and Ireland rather than along its land border with Northern Ireland.
Ireland's foreign minister said no such proposal existed. “As far as this government is concerned there shouldn't be an economic border. We don't want one,” Varadkar told reporters at a briefing in Dublin.
He said the border had been political and not economic since the formation of the European single market at the end of 1992.
Having customs checks at ports and airports would allow seamless trade on the island of Ireland and avoid potentially huge disruption for Irish farmers and small businesses on both sides of the Northern Irish border.
But any suggestion of impediments to trade between Northern Ireland and Britain are anathema to Northern Ireland's unionist majority, many of whom fear Irish nationalists may push to unify British-run Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
Varadkar rejected suggestions from some British pro-Brexit politicians that technological solutions such as the tagging of goods and vehicles and computerized customs declaration might allow trade to continue along a “frictionless border.”
“It's the United Kingdom, it's Britain that has decided to leave and if they want to put forward smart solutions, technological solutions for borders of the future and all of that that's up to them,” Varadkar said.
Asked if the position risked angering unionists and supporters of Brexit in Britain, Varadkar suggested that it was Ireland that had the right to be angry at Britain's decision to renege on earlier agreements.
“What we are not going to do is design a border for the Brexiteers. They are the ones who want a border, it is up to them to say what it is, to say how it would work and to convince their own people, their own voters, that this is a good idea.”
Asked whether he thought the EU would be in a position in October to begin discussions with Britain on a future bilateral relationship, Varadkar said it was not clear, but warned very little progress had been made to date.
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams supported Mr Varadkar's remarks and said he should support a campaign for Northern Ireland to be granted special status within the EU.
“The taoiseach should tell both the British government and the EU negotiating team that this is the best solution to the economic, political and social challenges that Ireland faces from Brexit,” Mr Adams added.
In the 2016 referendum, the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU but in Northern Ireland, 56% of the electorate voted to remain.
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Jul 30th, 2017 - 07:02 pm 0“The UK is putting up economic walls between themselves and the rest of the world ?”
You don't really know what you are talking about....as usual.
When we leave the EU, then THEY will put up tariffs between our two countries although we would still like to have free trade. It's their choice !
What new tariffs or political walls will the UK implement between itself and the rest of the world outside the EU. Please expand on this with FULL examples of countries involved.
There will be 27 countries in the EU when the UK leaves.
There are 195 countries in the world inc. the UK,so that leaves 168 countries totally unaffected by a trade or political barrier resulting in the UK's quitting the EU.
Poor research and conclusion by you....as usual.
As I have always said...
A dumb ARGIE will always be a stupid Argie.
Clyde and Voice, Breaking off with a 27-nation bloc IS creating a disadvantageous wall of tariffs around yourself, both with those 27, with whom you will not get as good a deal economically, they as a bloc will punitively see to that, and most likely on average with the rest of the world, with whom your negotiating position is much weaker, needing as you will to offer your favorite nation markets sweeteners to get as much as you used to from them. This is not rocket surgery even though it's beyond you. You will not be better off economically. You've traded better economics for control of immigration, and even there you will have to compromise and accept peoples you passed Brexit to exclude. So no, there will not be physical walls you will put up. But if you actually think through the results, you have built a wall around your immediate financial future, restricting it through all that you will have lost by ending the European deals you now enjoy and will not enjoy in two years. Inasmuch as you have a very finite time to pass about 100 deals with your 99 most important trading partners beyond the EU, they know you will be under the gun and can force onto you worse deals than you now get via the EU. Does that make it easier to grasp, you incredibly stupid limeys? No Argentine, for that matter no Mongoloid, is as dense to have done what you have done to yourself and then embraced it, as if a cut in pay makes yor situation superior to everyone else's situation. Why don't you cut off your nose as well? Your position is DAFT. You have been sold a lie which you swallowed whole without chewing. Still you insist choking to death will work put for you just fine. Carry on, lunatics. Suggest you desist from digging a deeper holes in your argumentsthan you have already on this site and take a strong whiff of reality for once. Leave the stiff upper lip routine to the lying imbeciles who got you into this.
Jul 30th, 2017 - 09:45 pm 0I would add to my comments that there is nothing so dumb as a Latino American who cannot write in English. My God, you have written the longest sentence in the English language. “rocket surgery” ? It's obvious that English/American is not your native tongue.
Jul 30th, 2017 - 10:22 pm 0So other countries outside the EU will insist on higher tariffs than the WTO rates on selling our goods to them ? They will be content that we will charge higher rates of duty when they sell their goods to us ?. Is your other name Captain Sensible ?
Anyway it has made you happy so not all is lost !
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