LONDON (AP) — Britain might seek to remain in a customs union with the European Union for a time to avoid border chaos after leaving the bloc, the government’s Brexit department said Tuesday.
The Department for Exiting the European Union said there could be “a temporary customs union between the U.K. and the EU” to help businesses make the transition to life outside the EU. Brexit Secretary David Davis said the transition period could last about two years.
In the long term, the department said, a “customs partnership” could eliminate the need for a border for goods traveling between Britain and the EU. Alternately, it suggested “a highly streamlined customs arrangement” could be set up, using technology to ease border procedures.
The proposal — one of a series intended to disprove allegations that Britain is underprepared for Brexit — drew a cool response from Brussels.
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“To be in & out of the Customs Union & ‘invisible borders’ is a fantasy,” tweeted Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator.
Some British businesses have accused the government of being vague about whether there will be economic barriers with the EU after Brexit in March 2019. The persistent uncertainty — 14 months after Britain voted to leave the EU — is weighing on the economy.
Trade Secretary Liam Fox and Treasury chief Philip Hammond wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that in 2019 Britain will leave both the EU’s single market in goods and services and its customs union.
The single market ensures tariff-less trade in goods and services and is linked closely by the EU with other rights, such as the right of EU citizens to cross borders. The customs union allows goods to move within the EU without checks, but also imposes tariffs on imports from outside the EU. That would prevent Britain striking new free trade deals while it remains inside the arrangement.
The British proposal says the U.K. should be free to negotiate new trade relationships during the transition period, something EU officials are likely to find problematic.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who favors Britain’s staying in the single market and customs union, accused the government on Twitter of having a “daft ‘have cake and eat it’ approach.”
The customs proposals are the first in a series of papers covering thorny issues in the negotiations, which are due to resume in Brussels at the end of this month. Another, on the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, is due to be published this week.
The European Commission said it took note of Britain’s suggestions, “but we will only address them once we have made sufficient progress on the terms of the orderly withdrawal” from the bloc.
The EU says negotiations on its future relations with Britain can’t start until sufficient progress has been made on three initial issues: how much money the U.K. will have to pay to settle its outstanding commitments to the bloc; whether security checks and customs duties will be instituted on the Irish border; and the status of 3 million EU nationals living in Britain.