Lars Karlsson, former director of the World Customs Organisation and the author of an EU-commissioned paper on Brexit and the Irish border, suggests in an interview with E&T that politics and ideology are sole impediments to finding an acceptable solution to one of the thorniest issues facing the UK.
Creating a frictionless “smart border” between the UK and the Republic of Ireland is “perfectly possible and doable” within as little as two years, the author of an EU-published research paper examining this aspect of Brexit has told E&T.
Lars Karlsson, former director of the World Customs Organisation and deputy director general of Swedish Customs, struck an optimistic tone about a subject that has vexed policy analysts and risks becoming a continual stumbling block on the path towards a beneficial deal between Britain and the remaining 27 EU member states.
Karlsson was commissioned by the European Parliament to write his study, titled ‘Smart Border 2.0’, and says he remains confident that there are neither technological nor legal barriers to creating a border with almost no noticeable difference from the ’soft’ frontier that currently exists between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.
He told E&T he wanted to “put to one side the sensitive politics of whether people like Brexit or not” and had focused his research solely on practicalities.
Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR), GPS tracking, radio-frequency identification, specialised smartphone apps and ePassports would each have a role to play in the ultra-high-tech invisible border envisaged by Karlsson, who recently gave evidence at a parliamentary select committee at which one Brexiteer told him his viewpoints seemed “like a breath of fresh air”.
From his home in Sweden, Karlsson explained: “I’ve taken the stand of confining myself to the practical side and the technical side of it [Brexit], of what happens if a border appears.
“If one country has a referendum and decides that more than 50 per cent want to leave something, then this conundrum comes along. How can you solve it?
“That doesn’t mean that I don’t understand that it’s very sensitive, this Northern Ireland situation. People also bring up, in the discussions and dialogue, this issue that if there’s infrastructure then people could destroy it. Well, yes, they could. Of course they could, just like they could destroy a camera in central London that’s there to surveil for security or terrorism.
“So yes, that’s correct. This is the consequence, and there’s no possible way in international customs law today, including for the EU, to have a situation where there’s no consequence of being inside or outside the customs territory. That’s not a political issue; it’s a technical issue.”
A simplified and fully electronic customs declaration system and new voluntary ‘trusted trader’ system were advocated by Karlsson in his ‘2.0’ report. He maintained that it would be possible to avoid having to maintain a manned border with people physically checking goods if leading UK and the Republic of Ireland politicians were to come to an agreement about this. Any necessary checks could be moved away from the border and new joint arrangements around data could enable cross-jurisdictional cooperation.
Karlsson would also like to see the UK make more use of authorised economic operator programmes, where companies that meet compliance and security standards receive trading benefits across borders.
He has even suggested that, in terms of developing a satisfactory system for trade and customs, both the island of Ireland and Great Britain are in a uniquely advantageous position compared with other European countries because of the simple geographical fact that they are surrounded by sea. They now have an opportunity to create a smart border that would be an example to the rest of the world, he said.
“From a customs and trade perspective it’s not bad to be an island, let’s put it that way,” he remarked.
eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2018/04/ultra-hi-tech-invisible-irish-border-perfectly-doable-ex-customs-chief-says/
Clearly there are ways to control goods and the movement of people with modern technology. It seems it would be cutting edge and move all custom's control into the twenty first century.
The technology is available.