Bernard Jenkins is the kind of ultra hard line Brexiteer who would leave the EU even if the entire nation had to eat grass and opposition leaders arrested and hanged for treason. In a Jenkins Brexit, remainers would be rounded up and put in re-education centres or worse. He is the all-purpose rent-a-gob for Brexit and has written a piece for Conservative Home (HERE) about the customs union problem.
He has set five tests (this is always the the mark of a scoundrel in my opinion) for what he calls a customs "arrangement" with the EU:
- Will the UK have regulatory autonomy so that it can fully execute an independent trade policy?
- Will the UK be able to sign meaningful free trade agreements which are compliant with WTO rules?
- Will the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice over the UK be brought to an end?
- Will substantial UK contributions to the EU budget be brought to an end?
- Will the UK be able to improve its own regulatory environment and lower tariffs in any area of its choosing?
A quick glance will show these five tests would ensure there was absolutely NO customs arrangement of any kind with the EU. They will NEVER agree to these conditions and strike a free trade deal with us. Trust me on this. Note also that not one of the tests is for continued frictionless trade with our largest market. He presumably wants to see both tariff and non tariff barriers - the bigger the better.
Nobody, other than an imbecile like Jenkins, would suggest cutting yourself off from the largest, richest, closest and most integrated market in exchange for future, potential trade deals with diverse, poor countries on the other side of the world. It just does not make any sense.
And he goes on:
The Government says it is clear that the UK is not going to be in any kind of customs union. There is absolutely no reason why we should be once we finally leave. Most countries are not in the EU or any customs union, and they are not disadvantaged. Some of them, large and small, export a far higher proportion of their GDP across conventional customs frontiers than we do, despite our access to the EU via the Customs Union. Many export to the EU, like Japan and the United States, because the EU agrees product recognition and standards with them. But they are not in a customs union.
The highlighted sentence must surely rank as one of the most stupid things ever uttered by a sentient human being. What he is saying, quite explicitly, is we don't export enough to the EU so let us make it more difficult for them to buy our goods and see if that helps.
And the EU does not agree product standards with other countries - this is simply not true. It agrees "conformity assessments" which is quite different. In other words it allows other countries to certify goods meet EU standards. This however, does NOT prevent delays at the border, or non-tariff barriers or even tariff barriers unless a certain percentage is produced in the exporting country - hence the Rules of Origin declarations.
Welcome to la la land.
His ideas are not universally acclaimed, even on Conservative Home with more than one comment like this one:
"How about listing how, when and why any or all of them actually confer any economic or financial benefit to the UK, if so to what extent and then subtract the income lost to UK through loss of EU business?
