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Tusk rejects Johnson's Irish border proposal

By JULIAN SHEA in London | China Daily | Updated: 2019-08-21 09:14

European Council President Donald Tusk has dismissed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's proposal that the so-called Irish backstop arrangement - included in the exit terms brokered by his predecessor - be scrapped to lessen the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit.

The backstop would see Northern Ireland remain subject to some of the custom rules of the European Union single market, giving it a different status from the rest of the United Kingdom after Brexit. Johnson said this is "inconsistent with the sovereignty of the UK", and he could not support any agreement that "locks the UK, potentially indefinitely, into an international treaty which will bind us into a customs union and which applies large areas of single market legislation in Northern Ireland".

But in a tweet, Tusk dismissed his suggestion, saying: "Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support re-establishing a border. Even if they do not admit it."

The backstop was included in then-British prime minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal terms agreed with the EU last year. These terms have been rejected by British Parliament three times and Johnson says the backstop provision must be removed if a deal is to be reached before Britain's scheduled departure from the bloc on Oct 31.

The absence of a hard border is part of the legacy of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland that claimed more than 3,000 lives. The fear is that any reintroduction of a border would revive old tensions. The current row comes just one week before the 40th anniversary of the British Army's single biggest loss of life during the Troubles, when 18 soldiers were killed by two bombs at Warrenpoint.

Northern Ireland is also key to Britain's post-Brexit trade hopes. Much faith has been placed in getting a free trade deal with the United States to replace the EU.

The British government has also confirmed EU citizens will lose the right to freedom of movement to the UK instantly if Brexit goes ahead as planned, rather than the gradual phasing out proposed by May.

Instead, there will be "a new, fairer immigration system that prioritizes skills and what people can contribute to the UK, rather than where they come from", said a Home Office spokesperson.

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