This morning the UK announced the temporary unilateral measures the UK will apply in the event that the UK leaves the EU with No Deal on 29 March. These come as MPs will be voting on whether or not to reject keeping No Deal on the table this evening…

Despite the original plan to have been to zero rate all the EU’s tariffs, intense special interest lobbying has apparently rolled that back. The UK has announced it will remove tariffs on 87% of EU tariffs on imported goods. The only tariffs that will remain are in a strictly limited set of goods and agricultural products that the UK considers vulnerable, like beef, dairy, and cars…

On the Northern Ireland border, the UK would unilaterally waive checks on all goods crossing it, meaning that the tariff rates announced today would not apply to goods crossing the Irish border.

“We would only apply a small number of measures strictly necessary to comply with international legal obligations, protect the biosecurity of the island of Ireland, or to avoid the highest risks to Northern Ireland businesses – but these measures would not require checks at the border.“

Belfast Airport would become the “designated point of entry” for endangered species and rough diamonds, and the UK would not apply VAT to any gifts coming to NI from Ireland. Businesses would also be able to report VAT online periodically, without any new processes at the border. The UK Government has admitted that, at least for a temporary period, a No Deal Brexit can be managed with no new checks on the Northern Ireland border. So much for the horror stories of checkpoints and guard dogs…