Why not simply stay in the existing customs union for an interim period rather than try to create a new one? First that would mean staying in the EU longer, since only EU members can be in the EU customs union. Second, for legal reasons, that would preclude the International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, from being able to negotiate new trade deals with the likes of America and New Zealand - and for some reason giving Fox something to do has also been judged by the Government to be an inviolable imperative stemming from the referendum result.

It is unknown whether the EU will accept the Government's interim customs proposal, but there are good reasons to suspect they will not. And, even if they did, the bigger problem is that a temporary new customs union in 2019 still isn't enough to avoid a cliff-edge for UK firms.

Even if the EU agrees to the transition and the UK and EU successfully recreate a new temporary union, there will still be major trade frictions. Turkey has a customs union with the EU but Turkish imports still have to be checked at the border to ensure compliance with EU standards. There are long queues of lorries at the Turkish-Bulgarian border.

Alliance with "The Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories" (62-63) epitomizes an afterthought, notwithstanding denouement of the POROUS BORDERS OF THE ENCLAVE crisis. Expect UK to pull this trick 3x more.

That is to do nothing, shifting enforcement cost to the EU. Expect the EU to run down the clock.

The "new customs arrangement" merely reiterates current, incumbent UK membership already affirmed by the EU (excepting some flagrant UK resignations from the EP and summit schedule conflicts). The gov't does flog UK win-win IT tech. So there's that. Accordingly, UK gov't needn't acknowledge the purposes of the A50 settlement period (24-mo "interim") established by the Council from Q4 2016: sever and cashier UK capital investment in and obligations to EU governance.

Accordingly, UK gov't doesn't acknowledge the deadline March 2019: For it is at point --with or without an agreed payment schedule-- UK acquires third-country status viz. EU27 interstate trade, with or without kinda, sorta adopting ("mirroring") just one freedom of the EU legal system.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

Much is made of the easy Norway-Sweden border, but both states are members of the single market but also the Schengen free travel area. Even so, there are controls and checks, and there would be many more if either country had the British phobia about migration.

The reason why the Irish border issue hasn't been sorted out more than a year after the Brexit referendum is that it cannot logically be the same as it is now - frictionless and seamless. When the UK leaves the EU customs union, with or without transition arrangements, some mechanism will be necessary to certify origins, to ensure that goods imported into the UK cannot travel into the European Union, ie Ireland, without some notification of their origin and whether they conform to EU rules and have paid EU duties, and vice versa. Otherwise the EU's common tariff barrier and the rest of the world cannot work. Modern technology and licences granted to trusted companies can help assist this, but the fact remains that some fresh bureaucracy, even if mostly digital in form, will be required, and human beings will be needed to police it.

FDP

The UK wants to continue to influence the writing of parts of EU regulation after Brexit despite leaving the bloc, according to the latest plan by Whitehall officials.

The latest government position paper says that "regulatory cooperation between the UK and the EU on a range of issues will be essential" to avoid damaging Britain's economy and security.

Settemilaquattrocento tonnellate d'acqua caricate fra lunedì e martedì nei serbatoi delle navi ormeggiate nel porto di Palermo hanno mandato in cisi il sistema di erogazione dell'acqua in città. Rubinetti a secco in in alcune strade dei quartieri Zisa e Borgo Vecchio e in alcune abitazioni di via Notarbartolo, hanno creato grossi disagi ai residenti per due giorni.

Independent | Brexit: Britain says it should still be able to influence EU regulations after leaving EU

The UK wants to continue to influence the writing of parts of EU regulation after Brexit despite leaving the bloc, according to the latest plan by Whitehall officials.

The latest government position paper says that "regulatory cooperation between the UK and the EU on a range of issues will be essential" to avoid damaging Britain's economy and security.