Downing Street has been working on technical solutions to this problem, fleshing out formulas described by the prime minister in a speech last month as “a highly streamlined customs arrangement” or “customs partnership”. On Friday, it emerged that those proposals have been flatly rejected by the European commission as unworkable, both from a legal and a practical perspective. [...]
One difference is that the opposition envisages negotiating enhancements to a recognised model: the customs union. By contrast, Mrs May is trying to reach for special favours from behind red lines that deny her an institutional template for a deal. Also, she is negotiating against a howling chorus of Europhobia from her own party, which corrodes goodwill in Brussels. The EU side was always going to be legalistic – that is in the nature of a negotiation that must accommodate the interests of 27 countries and respect existing treaties. But the commission has been made even less flexible by Tory noises off, which hint at readiness to disregard existing rules and boasting that no deal is required.
It is important to recall how Mrs May came to her current impasse. The commitment not to erect a hard border in Northern Ireland reflects recognition that doing so would sabotage a social and political compact put in place by the Good Friday agreement. Brexiters ignored that hazard during the referendum and have belittled it ever since. Their pursuit of the ideological chimera of absolute trade sovereignty blinds them to the reality of a fragile peace treaty that demands respectful, judicious handling.
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