UK wants to rule out North-South customs posts after Brexit

The British government envisages there will be no customs posts on the Border after the United Kingdom quits the European Union.

The British department for exiting the EU is on Wednesday publishing a position paper which states that Theresa May's government will "push" for a deal that ensures there will be no "Border posts" between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

“Top of our list is to agree upfront no physical Border infrastructure,” said a British government source. Border posts, she added, would mean a return to “the past and are completely unacceptable to the UK”.

The British government also will be seeking some form of transition arrangement with the EU to allow mechanisms to be put in place to make the Border “seamless and frictionless”.

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The British government, in the document on Irish cross-Border arrangements to be formally released at noon on Wednesday, also pledges to ensure Brexit will not undermine the Belfast Agreement.

It rules out any notion of having a border in the middle of the Irish Sea and pledges that the common travel area that allows the free movement of people between Britain and Ireland will be protected.

The document is one of a series of position papers the British government is planning to publish in the coming period on how the UK will quit the EU. On Tuesday, it issued a position paper proposing a temporary customs arrangement with the EU which could last for up to three years after Brexit.

Security concerns

The proposed absence of customs posts is likely to be particularly welcomed by Dublin because Border posts, as well as causing political problems, would raise security concerns because they could become targets for dissident republicans.

Senior Government figures said the customs statement was a “subtle repositioning” by the British government. London’s willingness to accept a new customs partnership with the EU is encouraging for Ireland, senior figures believe.

"This essentially means extending the customs union to incorporate the UK while it is outside of the European Union. That is effectively what the Government has been suggesting is needed for Northern Ireland for some time.

“We have said Northern Ireland is going to leave the EU but its relationship with the customs union should essentially be an extension of the customs union into Northern Ireland so there can be free movement of goods, services, trade and people.”

It is understood the British paper will also set out “key principles” for the Irish all-island energy market, as part of preserving north-south and east-west co-operation.