By Ben Kerrigan=
Boris Johnson has described one of No 10’s proposals for a post-Brexit customs arrangement as “crazy”.
A “customs partnership”, thought to be favoured by the PM, would involve the UK collecting import tariffs on behalf of the EU, Mr Johnson said.
The Foreign Secretary gave an interview to the Daily Mail in an interview, that a custom’s partnership would limit the UK’s ability to do post-Brexit trade deals. Johnson described the idea of a new partnership as ”crazy” . He said:”If you have a new customs partnership, you have a crazy system whereby you end up collecting tariffs on behalf of the EU at the UK frontier,” he said.
The issue of tariffs is still a problematic issue, with no uniform view of how tariffs will be assessed between the UK and the EU,
In Johnson’s view, a customs partnership would create “a whole new web of bureaucracy”.
“If you have a new customs partnership, you have a crazy system whereby you end up collecting tariffs on behalf of the EU at the UK frontier,” he said.
“If the EU decides to impose punitive tariffs on something the UK wants to bring in cheaply there’s nothing you can do.
“That’s not taking back control of your trade policy, it’s not taking back control of your laws, it’s not taking back control of your borders and it’s actually not taking back control of your money either, because tariffs would get paid centrally back to Brussels.”
Johnson’s views are opposed to the current thinking of Theresa May, but it has also been known that Boris Johnson has his own ideologies and philosophy of how The UK should relate with the EU post Brexit. This is why he had and probably still has ambitions to be prime minister, because he has his own perception of how things should be.
However, he is also willing to contradict the government on matters publicly declared, a trait that doesn’t go well with ministers, and certainly not the prime minister. What matters most is whether the point Johnson makes is valid or not.
