Re: Hard border or no hard border ?
Originally Posted by
Ray Cathode
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Ok, there's probably an obvious answer but I'll ask anyway. What's the difference between the NI/Ireland border and the Norway/Sweden border and does this offer a solution acceptable to NI and the EU?
A quick google check will give you the answer (unless you accidentally find yourself on one of Brexit HQ's sponsored pages). The biggest difference is that Norway is in the single market and in the EEA giving it customs union access. That looks like quite a major difference from what is being planned for the UK.
The Swedish-Norwegian border is 1630 km long. There are 10 approved border crossings and all of them have customs controls on at least one side of the border; 30 other crossings may be used private cars or by commercial vehicles which are pre-cleared. The two countries are part of the Nordic free travel area which predates the EU (so that bit is a little similar to the UK / Ireland situation).
We have a 500 km border with at least 275 crossings and the number of commuters is conservatively estimated at 30,000 a day but some believe it reaches 45,000. That doesn’t count a vast fleet of delivery vans from breadmen to motor factors who cross every day.
Norway is not an EU member but it is in the single market and pays handsomely for the privilege. It is not in the customs union but it is in the European Economic Area which might be considered a super-free trade agreement. Broadly, it means that all those customs officers are just looking out for a few products, mostly in food and agriculture.
Most of the technology deployed on the border, including the CCTV on all 40 passable roads, is there to combat drug smuggling; in the first year of deployment 400 kg of narcotics were seized. So was a massive haul of contraband alcohol. The technology has little or nothing to do with tariff controls on HGVs, which is still done on the good old queue-and-form basis.
This is not the example we need for the Ireland border issue.